Retired Adm. Franken touts experience, hopes to topple Ernst

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

Retired Vice Admiral Michael Franken doesn’t pull many punches.

Throughout his 40 years of military service, he’s been comfortable speaking his mind.

“I’m known as a person who makes tough decisions, and will do so with a level of bravery,” Franken told a handful of Charles City voters at VFW Post 3914 Saturday afternoon. “I’ve been known to talk truth to power.”

Franken, age 62, is one of five Democrats seeking their party’s nomination to try to unseat incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst in the November election.

The retired three-star admiral spent his 40-year naval career both in Washington, D.C., and traveling the world. He commanded 24 different ships, and among several posts throughout his career, Franken served as deputy for military operations for U.S. Africa Command as well as chief of legislative affairs for the Department of the Navy.

“I have far more experience on Capitol Hill than Joni Ernst does,” Franken said. “I don’t need this job. I am doing this as a continuation of 40 years of service. I feel privileged to have the opportunity to do that.”

Franken said one of his biggest strengths is his knowledge of international affairs.

“My experience — living on four continents and moving 28 times — is rather extensive,” Franken said. “If you want to address the defense budget, or homeland security, or space exploration, or military tactics or foreign policy, I’m your person for that.”

He said he was one of the few military advisors in Washington who was right about the run-up to the war in Iraq in 2002.

“In the planning session for the invasion of Iraq, I was the guy who said we were making a mistake,” Franken said. “I spent a lot of time over there, I understood the implications, and I was very aware that in the grand scheme of things in life, bad ideas don’t get better with time. Bad ideas, poorly conceived, don’t get better with age.”

Franken said he entered the senatorial race because he believes President Donald Trump could win re-election, and the Senate needed to put a check on him. He said Ernst has failed to do that and special interest groups have too much influence over her.

“As a candidate, no one will ever own me, except for the constituents in Iowa,” he said. “One of the reasons I’m running is to root out special interests.”

Other Democrats running for Ernst’s seat are Kimberly Graham, a children’s rights attorney from Indianola; Theresa Greenfield, a former president of a family-owned real estate company in Des Moines; Eddie Mauro, a businessman, former teacher and community organizer who has lived in Carroll, Boone, Indianola, Seymour, Centerville, and currently, Des Moines; and Cal Woods, a Linn County native who is a Navy veteran and former news reporter who now lives in Des Moines as a real estate agent and contractor.

Greenfield ran an unsuccessful campaign for the U.S. House in Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District in 2018 and leads the pack in both fundraising and media attention to this point. She has raised more than $1.6 million while Franken has raised about $200,000.

Although he softened his rhetoric from earlier last week, Franken was still critical of both Ernst and of Greenfield. Franken was quoted in an article by Art Cullen of the Storm Lake Times last week, when he implied Ernst was a “moron” who “kowtows to party leaders.”

“The worst thing I said was, what we don’t want to do is elect morons who only can follow a script,” Franken said Saturday. “What we don’t want to do in the state of Iowa is repeat what we did five years ago, when we elected somebody to represent us who has never worked in Washington before and says that she’s going to make ‘em squeal.”

“I know how this works, and I also know how to confront it,” he said. “I will work for Iowans, not big Pharma or whatever.”

Saturday in Charles City, Franken said Greenfield was chosen to run for Ernst’s seat by the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee in Washington, and endorsed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

“Iowa does a pretty good job of choosing our own candidates,” Franken said. “Maybe we ought to be left alone in that regard. We shouldn’t be bringing in external money in large PACs to promote Washington’s candidates.”

He said his plan is to compete with that outside money and win with social media, meeting people face to face, and “raising enough money to get on the airwaves and advertise.”

“Of the five candidates, I’m the one person who is not in Polk County,” said Franken, who currently lives in Sioux City. “I’m the one person who’s a science person, and I’m the one person who’s spent a lot of years in the military.”

Those gathered Saturday asked Franken a wide range of questions, regarding economic development, tax policy, immigration, education, gun ownership, and how he intends to win the nomination and compete with Joni Ernst, among others.

Before joining the Navy, Franken graduated from the College of Engineering at the University of Nebraska. He later graduated from the College of Physics at the Naval Postgraduate School.

He grew up on a farm near the small town of Lebanon, in far western Iowa. His father ran a machine shop that repaired farm implements and his mother was a teacher. Franken was one of nine kids.

He said his life experience negates Ernst’s strengths as a candidate — her small town values, her military record and “the pig thing.”

Franken said the two most important issues to him were health care and the environment. He said he wants to ensure that America is a place with clean air, clean water and a safe food supply.

“We can do better with climate change,” Franken said. “We can start right here in Iowa. We are in the catbird seat.”

Regarding health care, Franken pointed to the care he received when he was in the military, and said that all Americans should receive that same standard of care.

“I’m the beneficiary of 40 years of military health care —mental, preventative and dental care — and that’s what everybody should have,” he said.