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.
Profiling the ground game of each campaign here in Iowa, the Times newspaper in London discovered that Republican John McCain has had to hire “mercenaries” to compete with Democrat Barack Obama.
What’s worse is that the pair of canvassers the paper talked to were not the best spokespeople for the campaign.
Two women walk out of John McCain’s Mid-West headquarters carrying a pile of voter canvassing sheets, one sports a baseball hat declaring her a “team leader” of the Republican campaign. And both are black — an unusual sight in an election where Barack Obama’s support among African Americans is almost monolithic.
Are they volunteers? They look at each other sheepishly. “Not exactly,” replies one. “We work for an employment agency,” says the other. Who are they voting for? “I don’t want to say,” says the first woman. “Obama — of course!” whispers the braver of the pair.
They laugh, then look over their shoulders at the office behind them. “Don’t give him your name, he’ll put it in the paper,” says the cautious one, explaining that they cannot afford to lose their $10-an-hour (£6) jobs. “This is embarrassing. We’re doing this because we have to live. At least none of our friends can see us. We’re from Chicago — like Obama.”
The story goes on to compare the organizations of the two campaigns, focusing on Iowa, where Obama has 50 offices around the state compared to just 16 for McCain.
The paper also talked to Eric Woolson, president of the consulting firm Concept Works. He helped guide the campaign of Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to a victory in the Iowa Caucuses. He admits to being surprised that he wasn’t asked to be a part of McCain’s Iowa campaign and joins the chorus of people who wonder why the Arizona senator continues to focus on the Hawkeye State.
“Maybe they know something we don’t,” says Eric Woolson, who guided Mike Huckabee to victory in the Iowa Republican caucuses ten months ago. “But in a year when we really needed to step up, we have failed to match the strides being made by our opponent.”
The McCain campaign did not respond to Iowa Independent’s request for a comment on the Times story.
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