Let's Count the Ways that the Democrats' Anti-Koch Message Failed Them
Democratic Senate candidate Bruce Braley thanks supporters during his concession speech November 4, 2014 in Des Moines, Iowa.
Photo by Steve Pope/Getty ImagesIowa Democrat Bruce Braley is the official gump of the midterms. Every election recap of length includes at least one intra-Democrat dig at Braley, a congressman elected in the 2006 wave who seemed, initially, like a safe bet to inherit Tom Harkin's old Senate desk. Every recap recalls that he not only mocked incoming Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley as "a farmer from Iowa who never went to law school" (Judiciary has never been chaired by a non-lawyer), but that a donor who I can only assume was named Ignatius J. Reilly—a Braley supporter!—thought this barb was worth uploading to YouTube.
But Braley did not lose by abandoning the Democrats' playbook. To the contrary; no 2014 candidate ran harder on classic Democratic economic issues, or worked harder to remind voters that his opponent, Senator-elect Joni Ernst, was supported by the Koch brothers' network of donors. This was done in TV ads.