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.
It seems that the medal for first robocall in Iowa following the 2008 general election goes to former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
Huckabee’s recorded voice is used on the call, which is a phone survey that, based on the questions asked, seeks to identify politically active opponents of abortion and to request contributions.
Call recipients are asked if they have ever voted, if they agreed with President-elect Barack Obama and if they ever contributed to a political campaign or candidate. The call goes on to discuss the U.S. Supreme Court ban on so-called partial birth abortion, then brings up the Freedom of Choice Act, legislation designed to codify reproductive rights. Huckabee’s voice goes on to inform callers that if this proposed legislation passes that there will be no limits on abortion. Then Huckabee requests a donation.
Iowans who received the phone survey said the funds were to go to the National Right to Life Council.
The call reportedly appeared on recipients’ caller identification screens as “Call Center, VA – (703) 263-1658.” This same information has been connected to calls received by Georgia residents, which have been described as push-polls against Jim Martin, the Democratic U.S. Senate candidate in that state who will face Republican Saxby Chambliss in a Dec. 2 runoff. In Georgia the calls were paid for by the Americans in Contact PAC, a group which lists its mission as being identification of social and fiscal conservatives throughout America and engaging them at the grassroots level in the political process of elections and legislation at all levels of government.
This particular PAC also conducted calls during the month of October that attacked Obama’s economy stance. According to a press release on the group’s Web site, the PAC kicked off a “grassroots campaign in the state of California to identify hundreds of thousands of supporters of traditional marriage who will help protect Proposition Eight,” the recently passed ballot initiative that outlawed same-sex marriage in California.
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