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.
Political contributions made by the man at the center of a national egg recall to the Democratic Governors Association will be coming back to haunt Gov. Chet Culver, at least if one shadowy conservative group has anything to say about it.
The Progress Project , which formally changed it’s name from Iowa Progress Project last month, announced a 60-second radio ad Wednesday that highlights political contributions made by the DeCoster family companies to the Democratic Governors Association, a key supporter of Culver’s reelection campaign. Austin “Jack” DeCoster, the family patriarch, has a long history of running afoul state and federal regulators while owning and operating various agribusinesses in multiple states.
A spokeswoman with the Democratic Governors Association has said that the organization complies with campaign finance laws and that contributions are not earmarked or funneled to specific campaigns. Donn Stanley, Culver’s campaign manager, has said that the governor was unaware of the donations made by DeCoster to the national organization.
As The Iowa Independent first reported, the DeCoster company and family members have nearly exclusively given to Democratic candidates and interests. There was a $50,000 contribution given by Jack DeCoster to the Republican National Committee in October 2002, but federal filings also show that same amount being refunded two months later. Tony Leys, a reporter for The Des Moines Register, also noted that members of the DeCoster family, who are registered as Republicans, have given donations totaling $35,000 to at least two conservative state-based groups — Iowa Family PAC and Iowans for Tax Relief.
Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller said following The Iowa Independent report that he would return a $10,000 donation made by Peter DeCoster, a son of Jack, to his campaign in 2005.
“Jack DeCoster should have been thrown out of Iowa when he was named Iowa’s first ‘habitual environmental offender.’ Instead, he has continued to operate and ruin Iowa’s good agricultural name,” said Amanda Weiland, a spokeswoman for the Iowa Progress Project. “Iowans are tired of dirty money and embarrassed that their own governor chooses to do business with people like Jack DeCoster.”
According to information released by the Attorney General’s Office in 2000 when DeCoster was given the classification as the state’s first “habitual violator,” the court cases that ultimately led to the state’s strict stance began in the mid-1990s, which indicates that the offenses were taking place prior to that time — or during the tenure of Gov. Terry Branstad, the Republican that served from 1983 to 1999 and hopes to earn reelection in November.
At the time of the actual classification, Iowa was led by Tom Vilsack, a Democrat who now serves as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.
The Progress Project, which was originally incorporated as the Iowa Future Fund, is a conservative 501(c)4 nonprofit based in Des Moines. The group’s leadership includes Kathy Pearson, who is also a member of Branstad’s Linn County campaign committee; and Allison Dorr Kleis, a former aide to Iowa House Republicans. The group’s website does not list a current president, but it’s former president is David Kochel, the treasurer of Mitt Romney’s political action committee who was deputy manager of Branstad’s 1994 gubernatorial campaign and has also done some consulting for the current Branstad campaign.
The group was founded on the same day in 2007 by the same DC-based law firm as its sister organization, the American Future Fund (AFF). Both organizations have numerous ties to the Branstad gubernatorial campaign and the Concordia Group, a political consulting firm founded by longtime GOP strategist Nick Ryan. IPP’s spokeswoman, Amanda Weiland, is an account representative with the Concrodia Group. In fact, before announcing his intentions to run for governor, Branstad served as chairman of AFF’s Lecture Series.
The Iowa Progress Project has not indicated where and if radio ad time has been purchased to air the new spot, which has a title of “Bad Egg.”
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