The Greene County GOP once again drew big names on ballot to Jefferson, hosting what State Representative Chip Baltimore called “Team Iowa” for a 30 minute meet-and-greet at the Pizza Ranch in Jefferson Monday, right before lunch. About 40 persons were there.
Gov Terry Branstad, Lt Gov Kim Reynolds and US Senate candidate Joni Ernst comprised the team.
The candidates spent more than 10 minutes working the room, greeting well-wishers and posing for pictures. Reynolds, Branstad and Ernst all spoke, delivering primarily the same messages they’ve
“We have an incredible team this year, up and down the ticket, an incredible statewide team. With your help, it’s going to be an incredible Election Day on Nov. 4,” Reynolds said. She encouraged her fellow Republicans to stay energized.
Branstad talked about improvement in employment rates, the Teacher Leadership Plan, the Healthiest State Initiative, and a property tax cut for Main Street business achieved during his administration.
Branstad also reminded people that it was Joni Ernst who was elected to fill the state Senate seat Reynolds vacated when she was elected as lieutenant governor. He lauded Ernst as a farm girl who knows how to work hard, as a problem solver, and as a lieutenant colonel in the Iowa National Guard. “We could elect the very first woman senator from Iowa, and the very first woman combat veteran to serve in the United States Senate, someone who will work with Chuck Grassley, not put him down as ‘just a farmer’ from Iowa,” Branstad said about Ernst.
Ernst, as she has throughout the campaign, spent as much time talking about her opponent as talking about her own accomplishments. “We have pushed through the largest tax decrease in Iowa history, and we’re going to save Iowa taxpayers $4.4 billion over the next 10 years. What I do is always contrast that to my opponent, Congressman Bruce Braley. There is a clear distinction between the two of us,” Ernst said. “Here in Iowa, the largest tax cut. At our nation’s level, under Congressman Bruce Braley, he’s voted for one of the largest tax increases in United States history, over $1.2 trillion he’s raised taxes over the next 10 years.”
She talked of EPA rules and regulations, calling Braley’s support of EPA regulations “reprehensible,” and she compared the balanced budget achieved in Iowa while she was in the Iowa Senate to the federal debt doubling while Braley has in Congress. “We’re going to take our Iowa values to Washington DC,” Ernst said. “We’re going to get America back on the right track, just like we’ve done with this phenomenal leadership team here in Iowa.”
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