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.
Though many potential GOP gubernatorial candidates have recently doused speculation that they plan to challenge Gov. Chet Culver in 2010, state Rep. Christopher Rants (R-Sioux City) is publicly acknowledging his interest in running.
In an email apparently sent to state legislators and obtained by anonymous blogger Krusty Konservative, Rants writes, “I’ve put 2,300 miles on my car driving around the state talking to donors and activists about running for Governor.”
In the letter, Rants also predicts that defeating Culver would require raising “at least” $8-10 million for his campaign. No one will claim he lacks ambition.
Rants served as Speaker of the Iowa House before Republicans lost control of the chamber in 2006. He led House Republicans through the 2008 campaign as Minority Leader but was ousted before this year’s legislative session began.
He is a proven fundraiser, and he is feared on the floor of the House for his mastery of parliamentary procedure. But statewide, his profile is not very high.
Here are some relevant pieces of Rants’s letter, as printed by Krusty:
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I’m not making any official announcements or anything like that just yet. I’m taking stock first to see if I can find the support, and if I do, then I’ll let the press know. I have my eyes wide open. Its at least an $8M – $10M endeavor – or $110,000 a week as I like to say… I want to put some money in the bank, and be sure of financial backing before I take a stab at that.
So far it’s been encouraging. I have a series of fundraisers set up, and people who have agreed to help organize and set things up for me. I’ll be on the road this coming week again – back to the east coast of the state. I’ve been posting teasers about what I’m doing on Facebook and Twitter, so if you are curious you can always figure out where I’m traveling by looking there.
In case you are wondering – yes, Trudy and the girls are on board. I think they view this as either way we are all home together be it at Terrace Hill or Sioux City… Trudy and I have been talking about it a while, and once her health issues were resolved we were good to go.
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At some point in time come June I’ll be giving you a call to talk more in depth about the race, share some polling info, etc… but for now, I just wanted you to hear it from me.
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