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.
An Iowa-based political action committee that supports marriage rights for same-sex couples is working to raise $10,000 by midnight Friday in the hopes of countering the huge investment made by an anti-gay marriage organization in the special election in House District 90.
Fairness Fund PAC, which is associated with the state’s largest gay-rights advocacy group, One Iowa, is hoping a last-minute surge of money can help bring Democrat Curt Hanson to victory. The National Organization for Marriage (NOM), a New Jersey-based group that opposes same-sex marriage, spent nearly $90,000 on a television ad campaign for Republican candidate Steve Burgmeier.
“If Stephen Burgmeier wins this election, it will be spun as a victory for anti-gay marriage opponents in Iowa and across the country,” said Carolyn Jenison, executive director of One Iowa, in a post on the PAC’s blog. “We can’t let this happen.”
One Iowa has also started a petition drive hoping to force NOM to reveal its donors. Charlie Smithson, executive director of the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board, said in a letter to NOM Executive Director Brian Brown that if his organization continues to engage in express advocacy in Iowa, the group would have to form a PAC and disclose its donors.
NOM filed an independent expenditure Aug. 20 disclosing it was purchasing television advertising in support of Burgmeier. Smithson said in his letter that the independent expenditure process is “not a vehicle to shield political contributors.”
“It is a way for a group to disclose an expenditure it makes outside of a direct contribution to an Iowa committee,” he wrote. “However, if you are accepting more than $750 for political activities in Iowa, then you become a ‘permanent organization temporarily engaging in political activity’ and would be required to disclose donors to your Iowa activities under Iowa Code sections 68A.401(9) and 68A.102(18).”
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