Word: jepsen
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...RECENT CARTOON for the Des Moines Register said it all. It showed one skunk with the face of Republican Senator Roger W. Jepsen and another skunk with the face of Democratic Representative Tom Harkin. The two were spraying each other to death...
...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, a coal miner's son who served as a Navy pilot in Viet Nam, is trying to exploit Jepsen's gaffes with the campaign slogan: "Tom Harkin-a Senator lowans can be proud of." Jepsen has sought to make Harkin's liberal voting record the key issue. But though Iowa's voters tend to be conservative on most social issues, they are less so on matters of military and foreign policy. Harkin, who has won five successive terms in a Republican district in southwest Iowa, has tried to deflect criticism of his opposition...
...advantage for Jepsen may be the current enormous popularity of President Reagan, the original Teflon candidate, in the state. Iowa voters have split tickets before, sending some notable liberal Democrats to Capitol Hill while voting for Republican presidential candidates, but an overwhelming pro-Reagan sentiment might discourage many Democrats from going to the polls in November...