Iowans, Divided About Almost Everything (Except Gay Marriage)

At the start of this week, the Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register Iowa Poll found Iowa's U.S. Senate race to be all tied up, with a negligible one-point lead for Republican Joni Ernst. At the end of the week, Public Policy Polling found that Democrat Bruce Braley had crawled toward the same basically insignificant advantage, one point over Ernst.

A few facts are undeniable. Braley is running ahead of Barack Obama's approval rating, but struggling badly with the independents who elected the president twice. Ernst, who's generally received much sunnier media coverage than Braley, has been held to earth by the negative campaigns of local Democrats and outside groups – campaigns enabled by her reliable right-wing record.