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.
If Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels does decide to run for the Republican presidential nomination, a 2009 veto could become a sticking point for many Iowa conservatives.
That year, the Indiana General Assembly passed a bill scrapping the Missouri Plan — the merit-based judicial selection system also used in Iowa — in northern Indiana’s St. Joseph County. However, Daniels vetoed it, calling the Missouri Plan “a model to be emulated, not discarded. It is not broken; it requires no repair. It has produced outstanding jurists and contains sufficient measures of public accountability.”
In the wake of the successful campaign to oust three Iowa Supreme Court justices over their 2009 ruling that legalized same-sex marriage, the Missouri Plan has come under increased scrutiny from conservative activists. And potential 2012 candidates have been no exception, throwing their support behind the effort to oust the judges and criticizing the method by which they were chosen.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has repeatedly praised the ouster effort, which was led by his former Iowa Caucus chair Bob Vander Plaats. Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich said the vote sent a message that “we are not going to tolerate enforced secularization of our country.” former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum participated in the Family Research Council’s bus tour aimed at encouraging voters to oust the judges. And Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty said Iowans didn’t just vote out judges, they voted to define marriage “as between one man and one woman.”
So with Daniels quietly mulling a run for president, his position on the judiciary could be a sticking point. The Family Leader, a new evangelical political organization formed from the ashes of the Iowa Family Policy Center and led by Vander Plaats, is positioning itself to be highly influential in the upcoming Iowa Caucuses. And Daniels won no favor with social conservatives when earlier this year he called for a “truce” on social issues in order to focus on the economy.
Still, Daniels can’t be counted out should he throw his at in the ring. He won re-election by a hefty margin of 18 percentage points in 2008, even as President Barack Obama became the first Democratic presidential candidate to carry the state since Lyndon Johnson. And he’s already gotten lots of support on the campaign trail by one key Iowa Republican: Gov.-elect Terry Branstad. While it’s unlikely Branstad will formally endorse — and most of his staff worked for the 2008 caucus campaign of Mitt Romney — Branstad could be influential behind the scenes if he decides to support Daniels.
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