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.
A nationally televised debate, sponsored by the Republican Party of Iowa, was canceled Thursday when front-runner Mitt Romney told officials they could not fit it into their schedule. The debate had been scheduled for December 4 and was to be aired on the Fox News Channel.
Although the Republican debate was one of several scheduled in the state this year, party officials had planned to include activists from all 99 counties in its audience and were excited about the coverage on the Fox News Channel.
Party officials had already decided that they wouldn’t hold the debate if all the top-tier candidates didn’t accept invitations. Gentry Collins, state director for the Romney campaign, said in a statement that a busy schedule makes it impossible for Romney to attend.
“We have received invitations to a number of debates in the month of December. Along with other campaigns, we unfortunately had to decline an invite to a December 4 debate as part of a scheduling decision. We will be participating in a December 12 debate sponsored by the Des Moines Register however, and we look forward to that opportunity to again meet with Iowa voters on the issues. Governor Romney has already made 24 trips to the state and worked hard to win the Iowa GOP’s Ames straw poll.”Chuck Laudner, Executive Director of the Republican Party of Iowa, expressed disappointment that the debate had to be canceled. He said the cancellation means that Iowans won’t have the same opportunity that Republicans in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida had earlier this year with their nationally televised debates. A debate in Iowa leading up to January 3, 2008, would have displayed Iowa’s unique caucus system, and possibly garnered more viewers and attention than any other debate given its proximity to the caucuses.
“It is too bad that a candidate wouldn’t want to take advantage of this kind of debate with representation from all 99 Iowa counties in the audience, let alone the fact Fox News Channel has had the most viewers of any debate,” Laudner said.
The Des Moines Register announced Thursday that seven GOP candidates have accepted invitations to participate in the Dec. 12 debate. They include: former Mike Huckabee, Duncan Hunter, John McCain, Ron Paul, Romney, Tom Tancredo and Fred Thompson.
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Rudy Giuliani’s campaign said Wednesday he was still considering the invitation.
Democrats who will take part in a Dec. 13 Register debate include: Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Christopher Dodd, John Edwards, Barack Obama and Bill Richardson.
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