Calling farm subsidies “unnecessary,” Sen. John McCain rejected the recently announced farm bill compromise in a Des Moines appearance Thursday.“I do not support it. I would veto it,” the presumptive Republican nominee for president said.

The unexpected statement came at the beginning of a “town hall” style event intended to focus on health care policy. Both of Iowa’s senators, Democrat Tom Harkin and Republican Chuck Grassley, have been heavily involved in farm bill negotiations for months. McCain called his statement “a little straight talk,” invoking a campaign slogan.

The Arizona senator who once compared ethanol tax credits to “highway robbery” has long been troubled by opposition in the corn belt. In both 2000 and 2008, he spent few resources competing in the Iowa Caucuses, opting to focus instead on New Hampshire.

In March, Iowa Independent’s Dien Judge spoke with officials from the Iowa Corn Growers Association who expressed concern about McCain’s positions on agricultural issues:

Corn growers in particular have reason to question McCain’s positions on agricultural issues. He didn’t do himself any favors by skipping important votes on the Farm Bill in December, and he didn’t score well on an in-depth study of the presidential candidates’ positions conducted last year by the Iowa Corn Growers Association.

“As corn growers, we know that (Sen. McCain’s) past record does not necessarily support our same position on many issues,” said ICGA director Don Elsbernd in an e-mail response to a question from Iowa Independent. “But we are confident that we will be able to work with each presidential candidate to make sure that agriculture and agriculture policy continue to be an important part of our democratic process.”

Through its Targeted Agricultural Education Project, the ICGA identified 12 of the issues most important to corn growers and compiled information on each of the Republican and Democratic candidates’ positions on those issues. The subjects involved ethanol, of course, as well as transportation, trade and Farm Bill issues.

McCain was in agreement with the ICGA on only three of the 12 issues, while Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., both were in agreement with the ICGA on 11 of the 12 issues.

Mindy Larsen Poldberg, ICGA’s director of government relations, told Iowa Independent that the project lasted for more than nine months as the ICGA studied all of the presidential candidates’ positions.

“We worked with every presidential candidate and their staffs in order to find out their views on agriculture,” said Poldberg. “We will not be endorsing any one candidate. But our job was to collect information on what we thought were the 12 most important issues for Iowa farmers this year, and determine what each candidate’s positions are, whether they were Republican or Democrat.”

The ICGA studied the candidate’s views on the 51-cent blender’s ethanol tax credit, a renewable fuels standard, ethanol import tariffs, trade promotion authority and the Farm Bill safety net. McCain scored well on Farm Bill subjects and trade issues but got a black “X” for his views on the ethanol tax credit.

The results of the project were mailed out shortly before the Iowa caucuses to the approximately 6,000 members of the ICGA. The results of the project are now posted on the National Corn Growers Association’s Web site and are available to NCGA members all over the country.

“The candidates’ past positions on our issues are absolutely important,” said Poldberg. “However, I would like to think that whoever is elected to be president of the United States would take a look at the energy and agriculture needs of this country and take a more national view toward those things.”