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 candidates and their respective state parties might be focused on jobs and the economy, but national and state religious conservative organizations aren’t content with the current messaging in Iowa Senate District 18.
In a press release Thursday, the National Organization for Marriage announced it would be launching an independent expenditure campaign alongside The Family Leader, an Iowa-based affiliate of the Family Research Council, in support of Republican Cindy Golding’s candidacy for Iowa Senate.
Here’s the release:
The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) today announced it is launching an Independent Expenditure campaign along with The Family Leader in the 18th Senate District race to support Cindy Golding. Golding, a strong traditional marriage advocate, is running against Democrat Liz Mathis, a vocal supporter of same-sex marriage. NOM was a major player last year in the successful effort to remove three Supreme Court justices from office after they redefined marriage in Iowa.
“This is a pivotal election contest in our battle to allowing the people of Iowa the opportunity to vote to restore marriage,” said Brian Brown, president of NOM. “A proposed constitutional amendment on defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman enjoys broad-based, bi-partisan legislative and voter support, but is being prevented from coming to the floor of the Senate by Majority Leader Mike Gronstol [sic]. If Ms. Golding is successful in her election, we are hopeful that Senators will finally have the opportunity to vote on the marriage amendment, and we expect it to pass handily.”
NOM will be supporting Golding with a series of mailers and other activities in in the 18th District. The first dropped today.
A copy of the first mailer was included in the release and is embedded below. (Editor’s note: The following two sentences were added to this report at 2 p.m.) According to paperwork filed with the state, the mailer will be sent to roughly 12,400 homes in SD 18. The amount reported as a contribution is just over $8,000.
One of the “other activities” noted in the press release is a tentatively scheduled visit by the “Values Bus” to Cedar Rapids on Nov. 6 — two days in advance of the special election. The bus, which is a redesign of the “Judge Bus” that traveled Iowa in advance of the 2010 judicial retention vote, is a joint project of NOM, Family Research Council Action and the Susan B. Anthony List. During a recent Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C. the religious conservatives touted their Iowa strategy and announced their intention to take such bus tours nationally.
The exact place and time of the bus visit have not yet been announced.
National Organization for Marriage mailer in Iowa Senate District 18 special election
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