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 lot will be written about what former Gov. Terry Branstad said during his press conference today, where he announced his retirement from Des Moines University and declined to call himself a candidate for anything, but it’s also worth noting what he didn’t say.
In particular, according to my notes, he didn’t mention same-sex marriage or abortion at all.
I can’t remember the last time I listened to a Republican politician speak without hearing at least something about those issues, even just as a side-comment.
AP’s Mike Glover even asked Brasntad, point-blank, about conservative anger over the fact that one of his Supreme Court appointees wrote the decision legalizing same-sex marriage in Iowa. Branstad refused to answer the question, and he didn’t even take the opportunity to say how he thinks marriage should be defined.
It seems unlikely that Branstad’s positions on either same-sex marriage or abortion are out of step with the GOP primary electorate’s, but he’s going to have to talk about them a lot if he hopes to convince social conservatives that he’s committed to their values.
Even if Branstad can ultimately (miraculously?) win the primary without tacking to the right on social issues, he should be at least a bit concerned about an independent social conservative candidate skimming votes from him in the general election. Depending on what happens between now and June, that’s a real possibility.
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