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.
The New York Times on Tuesday profied Des Moines-based American Future Fund, which does not disclose its donors but was revealed in interviews last week to have been founded with seed money from Iowa businessman Bruce Rastetter, a co-founder and chief executive of Hawkeye Energy Holdings, one of the nation’s larger ethanol companies.
From the New York TImes:
… Mr. Rastetter provided “seed money,” but nothing more, said Mr. Rastetter’s lawyer, [Daniel] Stockdale. He declined to name an exact figure but put the amount at less than 5 percent — or less than $374,025 — of the nearly $7.5 million the group collected in 2008.
He added that “Mr. Rastetter has never exercised any decision-making authority” or held any official role with the group. (Records show that Mr. Rastetter did, however, give the maximum $5,000 to the fund’s related political action committee in December 2009.)
While the AFF claims a broad mission “to provide Americans with a conservative and free market viewpoint,” the Times notes that its activities have often appeared more like advocacy on behalf of the ethanol industry.
Among the first politicians it supported with advertising was Senator Norm Coleman, Republican of Minnesota and a co-chairman of the Senate Biofuels Caucus, during his losing 2008 re-election campaign.
Later that November, it focused on an unexpected target: the Indy Racing League.
In a radio advertisement, the fund attacked a deal the racing association struck to power Indy cars with sugar-based ethanol from Brazil, portraying it as a slight to American producers.
The campaign may have seemed odd for a group promoting free-market principles. But days earlier, ethanol executives, including Mr. Rastetter, had met with racing officials to unsuccessfully demand that they abandon the Brazilian deal.
These days, the group has widened its scope, attacking Democrats in several states on broad issues like the stimulus and health care reform. But, again, the Times notes that a pattern of going after Democrats who serve on panels related to ethanol is easy enough to make out:
Of the 14 “liberal” politicians singled out in a list it released last month, nearly every incumbent sits on a panel with a say over energy or agriculture policy. Five sit on the Agriculture Committee; four others are on related committees with say. One candidate was a staff member on a related panel.
American Future Fund, as well as its state-based sister organization The Progress Project, is registered with the IRS as a 501(c)4 nonprofit. It’s leadership is strongly tied to both Mitt Romney’s 2008 presidential campaign and Terry Branstad’s 2010 campaign for governor. It also includes media consultants who played key roles in the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads in 2004 and the Willie Horton ad in 1988.
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