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 Republican National Committee’s Rules Committee passed a preliminary 2012 nomination calendar plan Wednesday that would protect Iowa’s first in the nation role.Under Republican rules, only the national convention can set the nomination calendar, so the decision on Iowa’s fate needs to be made before the Sept. 1-4 convention in Minneapolis.
The plan that drew the most support at Wednesday’s meeting in Albuquerque was presented by Ohio officials, and allows early dates for Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. The Ohio plan would then have primaries or caucuses in 15 small states before moving to larger states.
“This is a great day for the state of Iowa,” said Iowa Republican Party chair Stewart Iverson in a press release. “I am pleased that the rules committee was able to work together and find a practical compromise.”
The Ohio plan must next be approved by the full RNC, which is expected to endorse the plan and send it on to the convention.
Presumptive nominee John McCain is thus far staying out of the fight. He campaigned little in Iowa this year, and openly attacked the Iowa caucuses in his 2000 run. But McCain scored critical New Hampshire wins in both of his presidential bids.
“You should have a place where retail politics should mean something,” Ohio Republican chair Bob Bennett told the Dallas Morning News. “You’re not going to do that in a state like Ohio or Texas, where it becomes a media campaign.”
In 2000, GOP officials pushed a Delaware plan to give preference to small states and delay primaries in the bigger ones, but opposition from nominee George W. Bush and strategist Karl Rove spiked that idea.
As usual, Michigan is out to end Iowa’s role. A plan from Michigan Republican chairman Saul Anuzis, also backed by Democratic National Committeewoman Debbie Dingell, would eliminate the first-in-the-nation role for Iowa and New Hampshire and set up six regions across the country with the voting order set by a lottery. One or two states from each region would vote each primary day.
A plan supported by the nation’s secretaries of state would set up rotating regional primaries, with or without early states. Republican National Committeeman Sean Mahoney of New Hampshire told the Manchester Union Leader he expected a general discussion of the pros and cons of a national primary.
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