Joni Ernst

Final election results for Buena Vista County:

• Joni Ernst (R) — 3,514; Bruce Braley (D) — 2,023

• Steve King (R) — 3,597; Jim Mowrer (D) — 2,270

• Terry Branstad (R) — 4,087; Jack Hatch (D) — 1,556

BY JOHN CULLEN

As a person approaching age 65 in a few months, I cannot vote for Joni Ernst for U.S. Senate. I don’t trust her to keep Social Security and Medicare safe.

Joni Ernst has a solution to the problems of government: Blow it up. Worried about Social Security? Scrap it for private vouchers that may or may not sustain Grandma. Don’t like the EPA dragging its feet on renewable fuels? Get rid of it. Think the Affordable Care Act is a drag on the economy? Repeal it. “We need to come up with a plan that is patient-centered,” the Red Oak Republican said during her first general US Senate campaign appearance in Storm Lake on Friday.

Claims she doesn’t run negative ads

By WHITNEY ROBINSON

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Joni Ernst campaigned in Storm Lake on Friday.

Fear and hatred are the best guttural emotions to engage in political discourse, which in the Iowa race for US Senate is presented to us in TV ads. The dark master of the art, Karl Rove, through his American Crossroads slush fund has trotted out the immigration issue to use against Democrat Bruce Braley in his race with Republican Joni Ernst. Braley would allow criminals to get food stamps and prescription drugs while paying nothing for them, the story goes, which of course is rubbish.

Bruce Braley will have to do better — much better — than he did during a debate with Joni Ernst on Sunday evening if Democrats hope to retain control of the US Senate. He appeared to be unprepared for unfounded criticisms of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare, as Ernst called it), misleading comments on immigration and a misrepresentation of Ernst’s position on renewable fuels.

Congratulations go to Tom Huseman, the Republican nominee for Buena Vista County Supervisor who seeks to fill the seat left with the retirement of Supervisor Ken Hach, R-Alta. Huseman, who recently retired as Alta city clerk, beat opponents Phil Driver and Stevan Quirk handily in the Tuesday GOP primary by garnering 58% of the vote. He was the best known of the candidates around the county, promoted his campaign the most and had the most experience with local government by virtue of his decades in public service.