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.
Anyone using the social networking site Twitter to follow Tuesday night’s public hearing on federal deductibility would have gotten a very one-sided description of events.
While the House Democratic caucus and the state party have Twitter feeds, as do five state Democratic lawmakers, it was the Republicans who used the site to document the chaotic hearing.
The first hour was punctuated with several speakers on both sides of the contentious issue getting booed or cheered by an animated crowd organized mostly by the anti-tax group Iowans for Tax Relief.
House rules prohibit demonstrations of any type from the gallery, and after several warnings about their behavior, the audience was ordered removed from House chambers by Speaker Pat Murphy, D-Dubuque, prompting further shouting, and according to The Des Moines Register, at least one piece of thrown chewing gum.
Documenting the entire ordeal was a group of conservative lawmakers and Republican Party of Iowa (RPI) leadership.
Among those giving frequent updates with their opinion of the proceedings were Rep. Chris Hagenow, R-Windsor Heights; Rep. Kent Sorensen, R-Indianola; and Rep. Renee Schulte, R-Cedar Rapids. Joining them were RPI Chair Matt Strawn; RPI Treasurer Matt Randall; and former Polk County GOP Chair Ted Sporer.
After several warnings about the audience’s conduct by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Shomshor, D-Council Bluffs, Sporer tweeted “we really should call their bluff and see if the dems would clear the chamber. they won’t and if they did…..couldn’t look worse for them.”
The crowd continued to ignore the warnings, and Sporer got his wish a few minutes later, prompting this tweet from Sorensen.
“The police are now escorting the taxpayers out. Everything has stopped for the time being. This is a sad way to treat the taxpayers.”
Citizens signed up to speak were allowed to stay, and the public hearing continued for another hour.
After a disastrous 2008 election cycle that ended with even smaller minorities in both legislative chambers, Iowa Republicans continually pointed to what they perceived as a technology gap with the Democrats as one shortfall that had be overcome for the party to be relevant again.
Use of social networking sites to communicate with voters was a key plank in Strawn’s campaign to become the party’s new chairman in January. It has also emerged at the local level, with newly elected Linn County GOP Chair Tim Palmer telling the Iowa Independent that “Twitter, Facebook and the other social media options are definitely a direction that as a party we need to go.”
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