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.
Des Moines-based American Future Fund (AFF) is spending $400,000 on an ad to support Republican Scott Brown’s campaign to succeed the late U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.
Brown, who in most polls is losing to Democrat Martha Coakley by double digits, is attempting to distance himself from the ad, telling the Associated Press that “I wish this weren’t happening,” and “this race is not going to be decided by outside groups.”
The American Future Fund's leaders played key roles in the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads in 2004 and the Willie Horton ad in 1988.
Massachusetts’ other senator, John Kerry, also spoke out against the ads, pointing to the fact that among AFF’s leaders are two media consultants who played a key role in the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads in 2004 that sunk his presidential campaign.
American Future Fund has been mostly quiet in electoral politics since 2008, when it spent more than $4 million on ads in Senate campaigns across the country. Although most of the candidates the group supported were defeated on Election Day, the group quickly declared itself the right’s answer to President Barack Obama’s “fundraising machine.” In 2009, the group launched ads attacking Blue Dog Democrats for their support of health care reform and helped organized and advertise the summer Tea Party protests.
The group’s most recent work has gone towards overturning laws limiting political robo calls in several states.
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