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 reaction to Kim Reynolds‘ selection as the GOP’s lieutenant governor nominee was relatively unsurprising: supporters of Terry Branstad praised the pick, while supporters of Bob Vander Plaats were less than impressed.
State Sen. Kim Reynolds, R-Osceola
The main question most observers asked upon learning that Branstad had picked Reynolds to be his running mate is whether she can help him unify a fractured Republican Party. Rumors continue to swirl of an organized effort to push Vander Plaats as lieutenant governor at Saturday’s Republican Party of Iowa convention in Des Moines. There is also chatter that Vander Plaats is considering an independent run this fall. Those questions will likely be answered Friday, when Vander Plaats makes his first media appearance since losing in the GOP primary.
Many of Vander Plaats’ biggest supporters are already attacking Reynolds’ record on property rights, saying she failed to protect the rights of private property owners in her own district when their land was threatened when developers sought to obtain land using eminent domain.
Ann Trimble-Ray, a Sac County Republican activist, told The Des Moines Register that her issues on property rights appears to be a political miscalculation but “not something many people are having a fit about.”
The overwhelming reaction to the pick by Republicans was positive, with statements praising Reynolds coming from RPI Chairman Matt Strawn, Senate Minority Leader Paul McKinley, House Minority Leader Kraig Paulsen, former Congressional candidate Dave Funk, former gubernatorial candidate Christian Fong, Iowans for Tax Relief President Ed Failor Jr., former state Sen. Jeff Angelo and Republican National Committee member and Iowa Christian Allicance President Steve Scheffler.
Kim Lehman, another member of the Republican National Committee and formerly president of Iowa Right to Life, praised Reynolds’ selection and her legislative record, ticking through each of the bills she has sponsored since entering the state Senate in 2008 and concluding, “Reynolds went into office and took the bull by the horns and got busy.”
However, a closer look at the bills Reynolds signed on to reveals she only sponsored one piece of legislation on her own — a requirement that the Department of Natural Resources develop depredation plans to fill harvest quotas of antlerless deer in each county that have not been met at the end of the last established deer hunting season each year.
Other than that, she nearly always joins with all or a large majority of the state Senate’s 18 Republicans to push bills. Unsurprisingly, since Democrats hold a 14-seat advantage, none of these bills cleared committee.
- Along with 14 other Republicans, Reynolds sponsored SF111, a bill requiring strict Internet filter policies by public libraries that receive state funds in order to eliminate access to pornography.
- Reynolds and 10 other Republicans sponsored SF233, a bill determining that life begins at conception and that an unborn child has all the rights, privileges and immunities available to other persons, citizens and residents of Iowa.
- Along with 12 other Republicans, she sponsored SF164, requiring Iowa to promote itself as a “right to work” state by placing the phrase “right to work” on all state vehicles, all economic development literature, all new signs erected on the state’s scenic highways and on all road maps.
- She sponsored SF232 with 15 other Republican senators. The bill would require anyone applying and receiving state aid participate in drug testing.
- The entire Republican caucus sponsored two bills related to federal health care reform: SF2097, which would cause Iowa to opt out of any federal health legislation that included a mandate; and SF2139, which establishes Iowans’ “right to choose private health care systems or private health care plans.”
- Along with 12 other Republicans, Reynolds sponsored SF2231, which would require all voters show current and valid identification before being allowed to vote.
- Reynonds and eight other Republicans pushed SJR6, which would amend the state’s constitution to allow the General Assembly to only meet every other year instead of annually.
- She joined with 14 Republicans to push SJR2006, which would amend the state’s constitution to change the way the state picks its Supreme Court justices. The amendment would allow the governor to reject all three nominees for a Supreme Court vacancy by the judicial nominating commission, in which case, the nomination process would start over.
As for the reaction of Democrats, Lt. Gov. Patty Judge said Reynolds likely won’t help unify the party or bring social conservatives on board with Branstad’s campaign since Reynolds “comes out of the same camp as Terry and Doug Gross rather than out of the camp of Bob Vander Plaats or Mr. Roberts.”
Liberal blogger John Deeth points out one of several comparisons between the selection of Reynolds and John McCain picking Sarah Palin in 2008.
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