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 Iowa Caucuses will be Jan. 14. No, seriously, Jan. 14.
That’s the official word out of Des Moines Saturday as the Iowa Democratic Party’s state central committee met, mostly in closed session, without taking action in response to other states that have moved their contests ahead of the Democratic National Committee’s official calendar.
But even though the top Democrats have signed pledges to skip the event, Michigan’s primary is now officially scheduled for Jan. 15, as Gov. Jennifer Granholm signed the bill into law this week. And with Iowa’s eight days before any other contest law still on the books, and New Hampshire still waiting to make its move, it’s still rather likely that the caucus date will move.
Here’s a summary of the schedule as it officially stands today:
Other events in the week’s leapfrog news:
The plan by Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., calls for rotating regional primaries on six primary dates between March and June. Other such plans have been proposed, but those planes include Iowa-New Hampshire exceptions.
“If we keep going this way, we’re going to end up with caucuses and primaries before Thanksgiving of the year before the election,” said Rep. Levin. “That makes no sense at all.”
Rep. Sander Levin is the brother of Michigan Sen. Carl Levin, long the most outspoken opponent of Iowa and New Hampshire’s early roles. Sen. Carl Levin also spoke at Thursday’s announcement and was direct about the intent: “It is unconscionable in a democracy that any state such as New Hampshire can have that kind of access to candidates and have candidates consider their issues almost to the exclusion of most other states,” he said. “It’s wrong.”
The plan is not on the table for 2008, but supporters hope to have it in place for 2012.
This all means that only Democrats would forgo campaigning during the coming months in an electoral vote-rich state that the party must keep fired up for the general election. Florida Democratic activists are so furious that they predict the controversy will dampen their enthusiasm come November 2008.
Maybe. But will real world voters care about this, or just precinct captains? And will those Florida precinct captains, who have been waiting eight long years to avenge Al Gore, really sit November out? And does anyone expect that the Democratic nominee will actually kick the Florida delegation out of the convention hall?
“This process is not easy, and, no doubt, there are more than enough hurt feelings to go around. But none of us can forget that our shared ultimate goal is to select the nominee best prepared to lead us to victory on November 4, 2008 and out of the Bush wilderness. To do that, we must continue to work together.”
All an Iowan can say to that is: YEAH!
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