In a devastating editorial that shreds Judge as much as it supports Hogg, the Register takes careful note to mention that Judge’s campaign has been characterized by a “lack of substance,” created “at the urging of party leaders,” and defined by “profoundly disappointing” responses to important policy questions.
On paper, Judge would seem to be the candidate to beat. She has served two terms in the Iowa Senate, eight years as Iowa’s secretary of agriculture and four years as lieutenant governor. And yet the most striking aspect of her campaign has been its lack of substance.
In listening to her speak, one gets the sense her campaign didn’t spring from deeply held convictions or from a sense of duty, but from the urging of party leaders, including the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
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It’s a perception that was underscored by Judge’s campaign website, which for several weeks didn’t have a single word devoted to issues. It was simply a vehicle through which online donations could be collected.
With the primary election just a few days away, Judge, 72, can readily name the issues that are of the greatest concern to Iowans, but her plans to address them are, at times, so vague as to be almost nonexistent.
When she met with the Register’s editorial board, for instance, she was asked about the EPA’s role in protecting water quality. She said it was an important issue that deserved discussion. When pressed, she added she’s not sure about the validity of farmers’ claims that the EPA is treating ravines and ditches as navigable streams, but that the matter needs “to be looked at.” Coming from Iowa’s former secretary of agriculture, that sort of response is profoundly disappointing.
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In any event, Hogg can claim the support of party leaders who live, campaign and vote in Iowa, while Judge has already alienated two of the party’s most critical constituent groups, organized labor and environmentalists.
Even if one were to give Judge the benefit of the doubt, voters would still be faced with the question of whether they should help elect a candidate whose chief qualification is his or her alleged electability.
Following last week’s utter embarrassment at the closing primary debate, Judge finds herself hovering perilously close to the 35 percent threshold required to avoid having the nominee selected by a convention. The Register’s brutal assessment of her campaign only underscores her failures as a candidate.