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.
Veteran Iowa journalist Chuck Offenburger, formerly with The Des Moines Register and now managing his own Web site, said the effort to convince former Gov. Terry Branstad to re-enter politics and run for a fifth term hurts the state GOP and damages progress the party’s new leadership has accomplished.
Last month, Offenburger called on Branstad, whom he describes as someone he has always liked and respected, to stay put as president of Des Moines University and abandon any potential return to statewide politics.
Now that summer has turned to Autumn, a Branstad candidacy has gone from bad idea to “even worse idea,” he said.
Branstad’s possible candidacy for governor, and the public’s slobbering endorsement of it, is really a stinging indictment of Iowa itself. It is even a worse black eye for the Republican Party of Iowa.
If I were a young Iowan age 40 or younger, I’d be asking myself right now what it says about my own career opportunities, if we’ve got Baby Boomers refusing to leave the stage like this.
That’s one thing a Branstad candidacy for governor represents.
The group actively pushing Branstad back into politics is made up entirely of people over the age of 60, Offenburger said. Despite the fact that the Republican Party of Iowa, under the leadership of 35-year-old Matt Strawn, is doing “an amazingly good job of traveling all over the state the rest of 2009, helping rebuild and re-energize many Republican county organizations that had fallen apart or were demoralized,” a Branstad candidacy could undue much of that work in one fell swoop.
A Branstad candidacy would only serve to remind Iowans of the “woeful job Republican Party leadership did from 1999, when he left office as one of the state’s most successful politicians ever, through 2008″ and overshadow the progress made in 2009 under Strawn.
Branstad should do everybody a favor and end this speculation about him getting in the governor’s race, and end it right now. He should announce that he will not be a candidate for governor.
And if he won’t, then Chairman Strawn should immediately line up some influential Republicans, go to Branstad and tell him to get out.
Follow Jason Hancock on Twitter
Do you know where to vote on Election Day? Do you know what to bring with you? Get comprehensive voter information for your state here.
Sign up for our email newsletter