House Agriculture subcommittee chairman Steve King leads by 12 points in a Loras College poll of 280 likely voters in the Fourth House District in northwestern Iowa. It was the second poll this month to give King, a Republican, a large lead over veteran Jim Mowrer, a Democrat. Loras said King led 51-39 with 10 percent undecided. A rock-ribbed conservative, chairs the subcommittee that oversees food stamps. He is a food stamp critic and a critic of California’s animal welfare rules for laying hens.
Joni Ernst, the Republican nominee for Senate in Iowa, could be a model for the GOP of how to maintain the its advantage among men while making inroads among women, who lean toward Democrats, said the New York Times. If elected, she would be the first female senator from Iowa. Pollster Celinda Lake told the Times that Republicans “haven’t had a right-wing woman before who was able to give so many gender-based cues while still maintaining their base.”
Illustrating the see-saw race, A Loras College poll says Democrat Bruce Braley leads Ernst by 1 point while Quinnipiac says Ernst is ahead by 4 points. Pollster’s tracking model puts the race at Ernst 47, Braley 45.
In a toss-up House race in the Florida panhandle, Democrat Gwen Graham’s campaign says it is rolling up a big advantage over incumbent Republican Steve Southerland in early voting and voting by mail, according to a memo published by the Tampa Bay Times. Southerland proposed $39 billion in food stamp cuts during farm bill debate, an idea that led to the first defeat of a farm bill on the House floor. Former president Bill Clinton campaigned for Graham on Sunday in Tallahassee.