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.
This morning it hit the news that Rob Portman is stepping down as White House Budget Director. Now it appears that his replacement will be Iowa Republican Jim Nussle, who represented Iowa's 1st Congressional District and, from 2001 to 2006, served as chair of the House Budget Committee. He left the House to run against Chet Culver in last year's gubernatorial race.
As chair of the House Budget Committee, Nussle presided over the largest budget deficit in history. Culver frequently painted Nussle as a big spender who had "gone Washington" and no longer represented Iowa's values, including fiscal discipline, and that message appeared to resonate with voters.
The following ad run by the Culver campaign highlights this point:
Nussle has most recently been serving as a top Iowa adviser for presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, and the Giuliani campaign has relied on Nussle's name when it faced attacks for skipping the Iowa Straw Poll and for not spending enough time in the state. Comment from their campaign was not immediately available.
Although the impact on the Iowa Caucuses of Nussle’s move is not yet known, one rival campaign staffer told us, “Without former Congressman Nussle, Mayor Giuliani is left with a leadership team consisting largely of pro-choice, pro-gay rights Iowans that have no credibility with conservatives in the state. This explains why they need to send their out-of-state national campaign staff to try and help in Iowa.”
This story is still developing.
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