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.
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson might be able to claim entry into the top-tier of Democratic presidential candidates if the results of internal campaign poll on Iowa caucus support are confirmed by outside pollsters.
In an email to supporters Monday, Richardson campaign pollster Mark Raslin wrote:
“The Governor [Richardson] has rocketed up 10% among likely Iowa caucusgoers in just three months, and now stands at 13%. No other Democratic candidate has made gains anywhere close to that over the same time period. In fact, amongst the likeliest caucusgoers (those who attended the 2004 caucuses, voted in the 2006 primary and are definite to attend next year’s caucus) the Governor has overtaken Senator Obama for 3rd place.”
Since Richardson has begun airing TV ads in Iowa, he has begun to see his poll numbers rise. The ads have been innovative and creative, contrary to the usual political fare of campaign ads. As of midday Monday’s email, former North Carolina Senator John Edwards and Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd are the only other Democrats to have aired TV ads. The campaign began airing a third campaign ad in his “job interview” series over a week ago.
However, this morning Illinois Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign announced they would begin airing two documentary-style ads in a highly targeted Iowa ad blitz.
When asked about the polling, Richardson’s Iowa spokesman Tom Reynolds said:
“Our consistent improvement in the polls is due to a grassroots style caucus campaign the Governor has pledged to run in Iowa and a message of experience and leadership that is resonating with Iowans.”
Iowa Independent also asked if the internal polling results from Richardson’s campaign could be part of the reason for Obama going on the air this week. Reynolds said he would not comment on other campaign’s tactical decisions.
With Richardson surpassing Obama for third place in the state–Edwards and New York Senator Hillary Clinton are the two candidates who had been in front of Obama–the dynamics in Iowa can be seen to changing dramatically. Edwards has consistently been at the top of reliable Iowa polling, but with the recent speculation that Richardson will outraise Edwards in second quarter campaign cash it is clear he has surged into top-tier competitive status.
Results of the campaign’s polling can be found below:Here are the results to the question “If the caucuses were held today, who would you support?” (likely caucus-goers)
John Edwards 34%
Hillary Clinton 24%
Barack Obama 17%
Bill Richardson 13%
Joe Biden 2%
Dennis Kucinich 2%
Chris Dodd 0%
Other 1%
Don’t Know/NA 8%
Here are the results to the same question, broken out among “likeliest” caucus-goers (representing just over 40% of the sample – voters who attended the 2004 caucuses, voted in the 2006 primary, and say they are definite to attend next year’s caucus):
John Edwards 31%
Hillary Clinton 23%
Bill Richardson 18%
Barack Obama 16%
Joe Biden 3%
Dennis Kucinich 2%
Chris Dodd 0%
Other 1%
Don’t Know/NA 8%
The poll was conducted among 500 Iowans with a margin of error of +/- 4.4 percent.
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