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 group working to convince former Gov. Terry Branstad he should re-enter politics and run for a fifth term in 2010 announced Monday that they would air a statewide radio ad.
The ad, which will run throughout the week, focuses on the governor’s record, saying he “cut taxes and balanced the budget,” “helped make Iowa education among the world’s best” and “guided Iowa through the farm crisis of the 1980s.”
The Draft Branstad PAC, which is paying for the ads, was organized earlier this month by former Republican state Rep. Sandy Greiner of Washington.
Greiner also serves as president of the American Future Fund, a politically active conservative nonprofit who last week launched ads attacking health care reform legislation in the districts of conservative Democratic members of congress around the country.
The group launched the ads one week after Des Moines Register columnist Marc Hansen wrote about the reasons he feels it is a mistake for Branstad to jump into the gubernatorial campaign, pointing to polls back in 1997 that showed 55 percent of Iowans did not want him to run for another term in office. He also pointed to the 1994 GOP gubernatorial primary, where Branstad was almost defeated by U.S. Rep. Fred Grandy. That raced focused on the state budget, with Grandy calling Branstad the “MasterCard governor” because of allegations of fiscal mismanagement in his administration.
Here is the Draft Branstad PAC radio ad:
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