Word: harkins
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...race for Jepsen's Senate seat has been a see-saw battle of Iowa mudslinging, cheap shots, and groin kicks. Jepsen's advertisements have stopped just short of accusing his opponent of treason, while one of Harkin's better known television commercials shows a close-up of a snorting hog while a voice over accuses Jepsen of insensitivity...
What's worse, the bad-mouthing and image-bashing seems to have been paying off. Last summer Jepsen began overtaking Harkin's seven point lead in the polls on the strength of his heavily negative advertising, and by mid-September he was nine points in front. Last month Harkin began to respond in kind, and according to the Des Moines Register's Iowa poll, he now leads 46 percent to Jepsen's 41 percent. Both candidates are expected to spend close to $3 million apiece, largely from PAC and Party funds...
...Harkin has accordingly adopted the campaign slogan "A Senator lowans can be proud of," but it should probably read "A Senator lowans can be less ashamed of" Harkin also inflated his war record, bragging about flying "combat air patrols" in Vietnam when he had actually flown planes from Vietnam to Japan For repairs. The and a few other impolitic statements from the past that Jesen dug up and quoted in an advertisement crippled Harkin's Mr. Clean image, contributing to his decision to get down and dirty...
...Harkin, on the other hand, has distanced himself from the Mondale campaign, stressing that he is running against Roger Jepsen, not Ronald Reagan. He has criticized the high interest rates that threaten 10 percent of Iowa's farmers with imminent bankruptcy, and denounced Agriculture Secretary John Block's handling of the farm crisis. Jepsen merely promises that the economic recovery will eventually flow into Iowa...
...most respects, Harkin is the model liberal: pro-choice, strongly supportive of Carter's human rights policies, critical of the Pentagon's "gold-plated tinkertoys", and concerned about the budget deficit. He was first elected to represent one of Iowa's most conservative districts in the 1974 Watergate sweep, and held on to its loyalties with unstinting constituent service and passionate defense of agricultural interests...