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.
Former Gov. Terry Branstad’s campaign manager is warning that a “liberal front group” led by a former Iowa Democratic Party chairman is set to launch an ad criticizing the gubernatorial candidate’s record on the economy and taxes.
Jeff Boeyink said in a statement that a group calling itself Iowans for Responsible Government began airing ads Tuesday attempting to “mislead Iowans about the record of Gov. Terry Branstad.” The group, which is registered with the Internal Revenue Services as a 527, is led by attorney and former state party chair and congressional candidate Rob Tully. According to its paperwork, the group was established last week with the stated purpose to “communicate with the Citizens of Iowa on issues of importance without expressly advocating election or defeat of a clearly identified candidate.”
The Iowa Independent has been unable to confirm what sort of advertisements the group has paid for in regards to Branstad, and Tully could not be reached for comment.
There are currently 13 so-called 527 groups (named after the tax code that governs them) registered with the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board. Iowans for Responsible Government is not yet listed among them. In 2008, two 527 groups in particular, The Midwest Enterprise Group and the Iowa Leadership Council, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to influence Iowa’s elections.
The activities of 527s by law can not advocate for or against a specific candidate, but often they will try to shape opinion of a political candidate or party in the context of a specific issue. Such “issue advocacy” won’t explicitly tell you to elect or defeat a particular candidate, but the advocacy group’s view of the candidate’s stance on their issue is clear.
The Branstad campaign wasted no time in attempting to dispute the ads, calling on Tully to “immediately disclose the source of these funds and come clean to Iowans about your motives.” While 527s are not regulated by the Federal Elections Commission, they do have to file disclosure forms with the IRS. The next filing period appears to be at the end of June.
The calls for disclosure echo those by Democrats in regards to the conservative nonprofit Iowa Progress Project. The group, which is registered as a 501(c)4 nonprofit, does not have to disclose its donors, something Democrats have taken exception to, calling the group “a secret political slush fund that lacks the honesty or integrity to reveal their campaign contributors.”
Iowa Progress Project has close ties to a number of current and former Branstad aides.
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