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 Washington, D.C. based National Organization for Marriage has proven it has no qualms about spending thousands in Iowa’s Senate District 18 to stir the pot on gay marriage. The group also appears to have no qualms about assigning its own talking points to Republican candidate Cindy Golding.
As The Iowa Independent previously reported, NOM is opening its pocketbook (once again) in hopes of influencing Iowa voters. The group has spent roughly $30,000 on direct mailers, press releases and robocalls to the voters they’ve targeted in SD 18. They’ve also planned to bring their “Values Bus” into Linn County this Sunday for a rally on behalf of Golding’s candidacy and to draw further attention to the issue of gay marriage.
Their attention to the issue stands in stark contrast to the public remarks made by the candidate they say they are supporting. At least publicly, Golding has repeatedly stated that the people of Iowa should be allowed to vote on a constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage — not necessarily because she wants it to be banned, but because she believes there has been too much political capital spent on the issue.
Thursday morning, NOM’s official Twitter account noted and its blog published a video produced by The Daily Iowan, a student newspaper through the University of Iowa.
The tweet reads: “VIDEO: @CindyGolding preps volunteers on how to answer questions about #SSM. #Iowa” and provides a link to the blog post. The headline on the blog post reads: “Cindy Golding in Iowa 18: Let the People Vote.” The content adds that “she notes that the people always vote for our marriage tradition.”
But, in The Daily Iowan’s video, Golding doesn’t say anything remotely similar.
If it comes up — about gay marriage — a lot of people, the media has tried to make it about that. I have said I want the people of Iowa to vote on it so that it goes away because we have a lot of political energy being spent on it. And, if you look around the country, every place they voted on it — whether they voted for or against — but once they voted on it, then the news media went and focused on somebody else. We need to get that issue resolved so that we can get on with business.
As previously noted, it’s a stance that Golding has taken publicly on several occasions, and one of which columnist Todd Dorman of The Gazette remains skeptical.
“Golding’s whole kill-the-spotlight thing is weak, especially since it’s folks on her side of the political spectrum, folks sending mailers on her behalf into the district, who are working hardest to keep those spotlights burning bright. And the notion that a vote will magically make the issue disappear underestimates considerable tenacity on both sides. Civil rights struggles don’t just end,” Dorman wrote.
Residents of SD 18 will decide on Nov. 8 if the seat vacated by Democrat Swati Dandekar should be filled by Golding, Constitution Party candidate Jon Tack or Democrat Liz Mathis.
Here’s the video shot and produced by The Daily Iowan:
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