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Poll shows attacks on Braley hurt Republicans

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By Ed Tibbetts | Friday, January 26, 2007 |

TODAY: (Updated 5:28 p.m.) Remember Bruce Braley, the “greedy trial lawyer?”

Seems like it was just yesterday the airwaves were flooded with ads targeting the Waterloo lawyer who’s now a congressman.

Republicans ripped him in last year's campaign for Iowa's 1st Congressional District seat for suing colleges, 4-H clubs, county fairs, doctors, businesses, even NASCAR.

Now, comes the national trial lawyers association suggesting the money was all but wasted.

The American Association for Justice (formerly the Association of Trial Lawyers of America) commissioned a poll in the district after the November elections that said, by a better than 2-to-1 margin, even people who’d heard “a lot” about Braley’s profession still preferred him on issues like the economy and health care over Republican Mike Whalen.

Braley won the race by a 12 percentage point margin.

The poll was done by Peter D. Hart Research Associates, a respected firm that also conducts polling for the Wall Street Journal.

The survey said two-thirds of 1st District voters who remembered a television ad claiming Braley’s “lawsuit abuse”made things worse for expectant mothers called it unfair.

The survey’s was first reported in Roll Call, the Washington, D.C., newspaper this month.

Chris Mather, a spokesperson for the lawyers group, said “opponents of justice” have sought for years to make being a lawyer a liability. “This poll shows those efforts are all for naught,” she said.

The lawyers group estimates $660,000 was spent on four ads with anti-trial lawyer themes in the race.

Whalen and the National Republican Congressional Committee aired the ads.

“From our polling, we saw that it was a problem for him,” said Steve Grubbs, Whalen’s consultant. “What carried the day was the feeling by voters that they wanted change in Congress.”

He added the campaign’s message was to target Braley’s “opposition to lawsuit reform,” not so much his choice of profession.

A spokesman for Braley, Jeff Giertz, said the ads were “over the top” and voters realized it.

One ad, aired by the NRCC, called Braley a “greedy trial lawyer” for suing on behalf of a woman affected by the spraying of lawn chemicals.

Grubbs said that was a mistake but beyond the campaign’s control.

The poll of 505 Iowans who cast ballots in the 1st District race was conducted between Nov. 10 and 12, and it has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.

Ed Tibbetts can be contacted at (563) 383-2327 or etibbetts@qctimes.com.