Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
A recently introduced bill could have far-reaching impact on the U.S. sugar industry, including American Crystal Sugar, a farmer-owned cooperative that locked out 1,300 Midwest workers on Aug. 1.
The chairman for Herman Cain’s Iowa effort says the campaign “relied more on the word of farmers than Washington regulators” in deciding to run an ad containing claims the Environmental Protection Agency says are false.
The Iowa Senate will remain under the control of a slim 26-25 Democratic majority when it reconvenes in January 2012.
With the fund-raising quarter drawing to a close, candidates did not spend much time in Iowa this week, but surrogates were in town. Two surrogates, Sen. Barack Obama’s wife, Michelle, and former Sen. John Edwards’ campaign manager David Bonior spent time in the state courting voters and playing up the importance of a victory here for their campaigns.
A review of where the most presidential candidate appearances have taken place seems to confirm the notion that Iowa will be a key battleground for both Republicans and Democrats in 2008. Iowa has had over 1,200 candidate appearances since January, more than double the number of the next-most-traveled state, New Hampshire.
Despite all of the attention, an overwhelming number of Iowans have not settled on a candidate to support. Although many are leaning for one candidate or another, private campaign polls show that up to 80 percent of caucus-goers predict that they could change their minds about the race between now and January. Polls have tended to show either a Clinton or an Edwards lead in recent weeks, but generally no leads are outside the margin for error. And a Newsweek poll released today shows a narrow lead for Obama among likely caucus-goers, so it isn’t time to write any of the top three off.
Among the so-called “second tier,” Gov. Bill Richardson and Sens. Chris Dodd and Joe Biden, have all built momentum in Iowa of late. Richardson has kept himself in double digits in Iowa polls, Biden has racked up an impressive number of state legislative endorsements, and Dodd has transferred more resources here, claiming to have almost 60 staffers on the ground.
The biggest surprise of the week came from Edwards, who announced that he would accept matching funds from the FEC for his campaign. FEC rules will prevent him from spending as much money on media in Iowa as he might have otherwise, although campaign manager David Bonior told me he expected the state-by-state spending caps would not be an issue. Still, Obama and Clinton are likely to spend significantly more than Edwards here.
On the Republican side, many presidential candidates were invited to a dinner hosted by the socially conservative Iowa Christian Alliance, known for carrying significant influence in the Republican caucuses, Saturday evening in Des Moines, although only one obliged. Former Sen. Fred Thompson will be making his first appearance in front of the group.
But Rudy Giuliani wasn’t invited. Steve Scheffler, organizer of the event and kingmaker among Republicans in the state, said “I think a lot of our base would rather wander in the wilderness for eight to 12 years than to vote for [Giuliani].”
Finally, the celebrities have also started coming to town. “Sexy plumber” James Denton, star of the ABC series Desperate Housewives, is making a swing through Iowa for Edwards this weekend, and The Last King of Scotland‘s Forest Whitaker will campaign on behalf of Obama next week.
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