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 National Republican Senatorial Committee is calling foul on Democrat Roxanne Conlin, saying she is trying to have it both ways on the issue of taking donations from lobbyists and political action committees.
Conlin has repeatedly said she will not accept donations from lobbyists or PACs, and Tuesday called on the man she’s hoping to unseat, Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, to not only do the same but to donate PAC contributions to charity.
NRSC spokesman Colin Reed said comments Conlin made at a reception Saturday were evidence that she has flip-flopped on her pledge.
The Des Moines Register’s Kathie Obradovich reported that Conlin told a gathering of Democrats that her self-imposed ban on lobbyist donations does not apply to state lobbyists. Only federal lobbyists.
“From the beginning, it was laughable that the former president of the American Trial Lawyers Association would make taking on the ‘special interests’ a central theme of her campaign,” Reed said. “But Roxanne Conlin’s complete flip-flop on taking campaign donations from lobbyists seriously calls her credibility and trustworthiness into question. Having broken a key campaign promise less than two weeks into her Senate bid, it’s clear Iowa voters are going to have a hard time taking anything Conlin says seriously.”
Conlin spokesman Mark Daley called the NRSC’s attack “bogus.”
“Roxanne Conlin is running for the U.S. Senate, not the Iowa Senate,” Daley said. “Sen. Grassley’s leading contributors represent the insurance and gas industries. Big business has had the run of Washington for too long, it’s time Iowans took it back and this attack is a bogus attempt to distort reality and detract from the fact that Sen. Grassley is in the pocket of special interests.”
Forty-eight percent of contributions to Grassley’s 2010 re-election campaign came from PACs, totaling nearly $2 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. While the amount of contributions from PACs far outpaces other Iowa candidates, the percentage of donations from PACs is actually lower than his fellow Iowa incumbents.
Fifty-two percent of donations to First District Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Waterloo, came from PACs, or roughly $250,000.
Fifty-nine percent of donations to Second District Rep. Dave Loebsack, D-Mt. Vernon, came from PACs, totaling around $145,000.
Seventy-nine percent of donations to Third District Leonard Boswell, D-Des Moines, came form PACs, totaling $328,000.
Fifty percent of donations to Fourth District Rep. Tom Latham, R-Ames, came from PACs, totaling $229,000.
The only incumbent running in 2010 with a lower percentage of campaign contributions from PACs is Fifth District Rep. Steve King, R-Kiron. Only 24 percent of his contributions, or around $65,000, comes from PACs.
Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin, who isn’t up for re-election in 2010, accepted $2.3 million in PAC contributions, or 26 percent of his total.
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