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.
Poll numbers released Thursday reinforce Republican Terry Branstad‘s promise that his campaign will draw a considerable number of Democrats and independents in November’s gubernatorial race. However, how many he might grab is unclear.
The most recent stats predict Branstad would net 52 percent of the vote against Democratic incumbent Gov. Chet Culver. With only 29 percent of Iowa voters being registered Republican, the numbers indicate a large chunk of non-Republicans would cast votes for Branstad.
Terry Branstad (photo by Dave Davidson, TEApublican.com)
However, the voters polled by Public Policy Polling (PPP) don’t make up a good representation of Iowa voters: 38 percent of respondents were Republicans, 37 percent Democrats, and 26 percent independents. And most of those surveyed said they consider themselves “conservative.” Those numbers present an odd sampling for a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans by about 100,000 voters.
Still, PPP reports that 20 percent of Democrats and 50 percent of independents said they would support the Republican in a Branstad-Culver match-up.
The survey puts Branstad 15 points ahead of Culver. The same firm released a poll earlier this week indicating Branstad holds a similar lead over primary opponent Bob Vander Plaats.
Branstad’s campaign echoed previous statements that it could attract moderate voters, but a spokesman also said he isn’t looking past the two other Republican challengers in the June 8 primary.
“[Former] Gov. Branstad is a candidate who can build a broad base of support throughout the state of Iowa and the polling clearly shows that,” campaign spokesman Tim Albrecht told The Iowa Independent on Thursday. “The only poll that counts is on election day and we are going to make sure we turn out every vote we can leading up to primary day on Tuesday.”
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