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.
Thursday’s announcements that former Republican Gov. Terry Branstad has raised $1.5 million and has $1.3 million cash on hand and incumbent Democratic Gov. Chet Culver‘s has $2.59 million cash on hand is the talk of the blogosphere.
On the right, Kevin Hall points to the fact that Culver needed a full year to raise money, compared to only four months for Branstad, as a reason for the Democrat to be afraid.
Only 1,000 individual donors contributed to Culver, compared to Branstad’s 3,000. Those numbers show Branstad is more than capable of competing with Culver in the fundraising department, and beating him in statewide support. It will take a lot of time and effort on Culver’s part to outraise Branstad. Time and effort are two things Culver cannot afford, since the state faces a Democrat-created fiscal crisis that he has not figured a way to solve.
Liberal blog Bleeding Heartland was not surprised by Branstad’s fundraising abilities, since “you can make a lot of contacts in four terms as governor.” The cause for concern is the Culver’ campaign’s rate of spending.
Culver campaign manager Abby Curran told me that the total amount raised during 2009 was $2.145 million. She declined to tell me how much the campaign spent during the year, but it’s not hard to arrive at a ballpark figure. Last January, Culver’s campaign reported having about $1.5 million on hand. Adding $2.145 million to that and subtracting the $2.59 million the campaign has on hand now suggests that the governor’s campaign spent a little more than $1 million during the past year.
The 2006 gubernatorial campaign cost both sides around $15 million, and with most expected 2010 to crush that record, the rate of spending on Culver’s part worrisome, the blog contends.
Each gubernatorial candidate will be required to file their official financial disclosure forms by Jan. 19.
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