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.
Two presidential tickets filed on Friday’s deadline day, giving Iowans nine candidates to choose from. The last minute additions are Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party and Brian Moore of the Socialist Party.
The Constitution Party started as the US Taxpayers Party, an umbrella group of several single state conservative parties. It changed names in 1999. Baldwin was the 2004 vice presidential candidate. He’s running under different labels in some states.
The Socialist Party is the lineal descendant of Eugene Debs’ campaigns a century ago and has elected, as Alice Cooper duly noted in “Wayne’s World,” three Socialist mayors of Milwaukee. The party faded almost to non-existence in the 1960s but has been an off and on presence on Iowa’s presidential ballots since 1980.
Nine presidential tickets is about average for Iowa in recent presidential cycles. The most crowded ballot was in 1992 with 14 candidates.
The big news in Congressional filing was the non-filing by Democratic primary loser William Myers in the 4th Congressional District. There will be three-way contests in the 3rd and 5th Districts, and a four-way race in the 2nd. The U.S. Senate race is a two way contest between incumbent Democrat Tom Harkin and Republican Christopher Reed.
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