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.
Republican presidential candidate John McCain spent $352,000 on television advertising in Iowa the week following the Republican National Convention compared to $148,000 by Democrat Barack Obama.
The figures, compiled by the Wisconsin Advertising Project, show that just over half the $15 million spent nationally by both campaigns between Sept. 6 and 13 went to the battleground states of Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. McCain spent $7.8 million compared with $7.76 million for Obama.
“Where the campaigns advertise tells us a great deal about the candidates’ electoral strategies. Post-convention ad buys give us insights into the campaigns’ assessments of where they think they are competitive as the fall campaign heats up. Advertising represents reality,†said Professor Ken Goldstein of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the director of the Wisconsin Advertising Project. “Looking where ads are being run tells us what the candidates are thinking. Campaigns only run ads in states they think they can win or where they think they can bait the other side into spending money.â€
Almost all (97 percent) of the ads in support of the Obama campaign were sponsored by the candidate, with the remaining 3 percent paid for by the Democratic National Committee. On the other side, the majority of the McCain campaign’s ads (57 percent) were run in cooperation between the candidate and the party, with the remainder aired by the McCain campaign.
The report also said that 77 percent of Obama’s ads were negative compared with 56 percent for McCain.
The University of Wisconsin Advertising Project is affiliated with the university’s Political Science Department.
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