The two sat together at a table rather than standing at podiums. | AP Photos Braley, Ernst clash on Ebola

Fresh off a plane back from a hearing in Washington Thursday, Democratic Rep. Bruce Braley clashed with his Republican opponent in the final debate of the Iowa Senate race over President Barack Obama’s response to the Ebola outbreak.

Braley, locked in a margin-of-error race, said at the start of his hourlong meeting with Republican Joni Ernst at Morningside College in Sioux City that he asked “tough questions and demanded answers” during a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing earlier in the day.


“We need to do whatever is necessary” to keep America safe, he said.

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“We need to do more,” responded Ernst. “Unfortunately our administration, including Congressman Braley, has been very reactive, rather than proactive.”

She called for travel bans, intensified screening and more aid to help affected countries in Africa.

Braley shot back that Ernst would have let the federal government shut down last year if she’d been in office, including key operations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health, as well as cutting off foreign aid.

“So you can’t say you support those things when the policies you’re promoting would have made it more difficult for us to address these problems,” he said.

( Also on POLITICO: Joni Ernst pushes back against sex-harassment suit)

Ernst complained that it took so long for Congress to hold a hearing, but Braley noted that Republicans control the House and could have scheduled a hearing long ago.

“I released a statement about Ebola before the congressman,” Ernst said. “He sits on this important committee. He could have been pushing on this a number of months ago.”

Three TV stations in the state — in Sioux City, Des Moines and the Quad Cities — and C-SPAN carried the debate live. Unlike the previous two meetings, the two sat together at a table rather than standing at podiums.

Neither candidate had a breakout night. Braley looked annoyed and seemed like he was on the verge of losing his temper at points. Ernst spoke slowly and cautiously, looking straight ahead into the camera instead of responding directly to the moderator. She didn’t make eye contact with Braley as he addressed her.

Most of the ground they trod was similar to the previous meetings, but here were five fresh exchanges:

Braley took a more dovish posture on the Middle East than in the previous debates.

The Democrat, elected in 2006 on a platform of withdrawing from Iraq, said he received a classified briefing Thursday when in Washington on the latest with ISIL. He still called the group “a threat that must be destroyed,” as he said in the past. But he got testy when Ernst — a combat veteran of Iraq — suggested he’s not tough enough.

“The truth is we can’t continue to be the world’s police force,” he said. “Secretary [Robert] Gates, in his last address at West Point, said for any future defense secretary to advise an American president to a large-scale land war in the Middle East, [they] ought to have their head examined.”

Ernst advocated for a more robust intervention, citing former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, whom she said “advised that we keep troops on the ground.

“There is overwhelming support coming from the American people,” she said. “This is another issue that our president and Congressman Braley have been reactive, rather than proactive.”

“The congressman twice voted to defund our men and women as they were serving in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan,” she added.

Braley started off on defense over his four terms in the House.

The moderator casually introduced Braley, along with his biography, as a congressman known for usually voting along party lines — and added that he’s passed one bill during his eight years in the House.

That touched a nerve with the Democrat.

“I’ve introduced and passed a lot more than one bill,” Braley said.

He said he’s worked with Republicans and helped shape a lot of legislation.

Ernst started out on defense over Personhood.

The female co-moderator pressed the Republican on abortion. Ernst hinted, but never definitively stated, that she’d be open to a life-of-the-mother exception to an abortion ban, without citing rape or incest. She also said she supports access to contraception and in vitro fertilization, despite sponsoring a Personhood amendment to the state Constitution.

“I do support life at conception, and I will always support life,” Ernst said.

She attacked Braley for supporting partial-birth abortion, which he denied.

Braley attacked her for supporting the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision, which he said will make it harder and more expensive for women to get contraception.

“I have said over and over again that I do support a women’s right to accessible, reliable and safe contraception,” said Ernst, who looked nervous as the questions kept coming. “To be lectured on these issues of contraception is laughable.”

“This is a ploy to scare women, and we shouldn’t be doing that,” she added.

Later, Ernst went on offense when the conversation shifted to Obamacare.

“You stated a few years back that you would not change a thing,” she told Braley. “You said you read every page. … Either you didn’t understand what was in the bill or you were misleading Iowans. I don’t know which one was worse.”

Braley said premiums would go up 225 percent if Republicans repeal the health law.

When you pass something so big, he explained, “there are bound to be some things you have to deal with along the way.”

Braley attacked Ernst for wanting to scrap the IRS.

Asked whether she’d ever raise taxes, Ernst said she wants a code that’s fairer, flatter and simpler.

“I say scrap the IRS; let’s start all over again,” she said.

“Senator Ernst’s answer to everything is scrap it,” Braley shot back, citing her desire to eliminate the IRS, the Department of Education and the Environmental Protection Agency.

“Every solution she has is throwing darts at the board, trying to get rid of programs that have had significant impacts and made a difference in the lives of Iowans,” he said. “I think the solution is to find problems and fix them.”

Ernst said Braley’s “fix” for everything is higher taxes and more spending.

Ernst has stopped watching television but defended the right of outside groups to run negative ads.

Ernst ducked when the moderator asked her to pick an ad run by an outside group on her behalf that she disapproves of, saying that she and her family don’t watch television in order to avoid seeing the ads.

“My husband and daughter don’t watch television anymore,” she said. “It is very disheartening.”

“Congressman Braley has a failed record in Washington, and because of that he’s running the most negative campaign that Iowans have ever seen,” she added.

But then she offered an impassioned defense of the right for outside groups to spend, even though she argued that outside groups have spent more attacking her than Braley.

“I do believe in political free speech,” she said. “Whether we like it or whether we don’t, and I don’t … I do believe in standing up for our citizens’ rights.”

Braley said that proves she’s beholden to the Koch brothers.

“The political free speech of secret donors is not more important than the voice of Iowans,” he said.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this report incorrectly identified the three television markets in which the debate was televised.

CORRECTION: Corrected by: Alysha Love @ 10/17/2014 11:49 AM CORRECTION: A previous version of this report incorrectly identified the three television markets in which the debate was televised.