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.
Common Cause, the national non-partisan organization focused on government accountability, will run a full page ad in the Sunday edition of seven of Iowa’s largest newspapers to raise voter awareness on the issue of campaign finance reform and encourage voters to ask presidential candidates for their stance on the issue.
Common Cause says that six candidates, all Democrats, have submitted written promises to work in support of public financing of elections. They include: Joe Biden, Chris Dodd, John Edwards, Mike Gravel, Dennis Kucinich, and Barack Obama. Nine candidates have made no such commitment and their official position is unknown. They include: Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bill Richardson and Republicans Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, Duncan Hunter, John McCain, Mitt Romney, Tom Tancredo and Fred Thompson. In addition, Ron Paul is listed in the ad as the only candidate who has stated his opposition to public financing.
The ad features a million dollar bill with a picture of former lobbyist and convicted felon Jack Abramoff, and the headline, “It’s Time to Take This Money Out Of Circulation.”
The ad is scheduled to run in Sunday’s Des Moines Register, Cedar Rapids Gazette, Quad City Times, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, Dubuque Telegraph-Herald, Sioux City Journal and Burlington Hawk Eye, reaching over half a million readers.
“This ad is the cornerstone of our efforts to highlight the role of big money in politics and push for public funding of campaigns,” Iowa Common Cause Organizer Kyle Lobner said. “We’ve been working for months across the state to get candidates on the record on this issue, and on Sunday we’ll finally be ready to release our findings.”
Congress next year is expected to begin consideration of legislation that would create a voluntary system of public funding for congressional candidates, modeled after successful similar systems in Maine, Arizona and Connecticut. The legislation, called the Fair Elections Now Act, would offer public funding to qualified candidates who accept spending limits and agree to stop taking private contributions.
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