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.
Kim Lehman
The Iowa Democratic Party is including Republican National Committee member Kim Lehman’s statements about her belief the President Barack Obama is a secret Muslim in a new fundraising e-mail sent out Monday.
As first reported by the blog Bleeding Heartland, Lehman said on her Twitter account last week that a speech the president gave in Cairo was proof that he was a Muslim and not a Christian. In interviews with the Huffington Post and The Des Moines Register, Lehman reiterated her belief in the conspiracy theory.
In the new IDP fundraiser, Lehman’s assertions are coupled with U.S. Rep. Steve King‘s statement that the president is a “Marxist,” Iowa House candidate Jeremy Walter‘s statements that AIDS is a punishment from God for homosexuality and Iowa Senate candidate Dave Leach‘s statement that his openly-gay opponent is “Iowa’s chief sodomite.”
“The GOP’s new distract and offend strategy has no place in Iowa, a state that has always valued open and honest debate, but it is unfortunately taking over their side of the aisle,” IDP Chairwoman Sue Dvorsky said in the e-mail, later adding: “At the end of the day this incendiary rhetoric doesn’t help Iowa. Every week another Iowa Republican makes a statement that is an embarrassment on a national level. Meanwhile our Democratic candidates have a vision for a better Iowa and are working to make it a reality.”
A spokesperson for Republican Party of Iowa chairman and RNC member Matt Strawn did not respond to a request for comment about Lehman’s statements.
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