Posted on 01/04/2016 7:05:50 AM PST by Isara
DES MOINES, Iowa - Ted Cruz arrives Monday for his first Iowa trip of 2016, but he won't just be battling Marco Rubio and Donald Trump. He'll been fending off the state's influential corn lobby.
As Cruz kicks off a six-day bus tour across the state, his critics in the state's ethanol industry will be trailing close behind in a RV. They're hoping to highlight the Texas senator's opposition to a federal mandate that ethanol be mixed into gasoline at each of Cruz's planned 28 stops.
"We're going to be turning out all of our allies," said Eric Branstad, the son of longtime Iowa Republican Gov. Terry Branstad and the state director for America's Renewable Future. The group supports the so-called the Renewable Fuel Standard, which Cruz has vocally opposed. "Iowans can't trust him and we have a duty to let them know why."
In addition to trailing Cruz's bus, the group is buying newspaper, radio and digital ads to shadow Cruz, and launching robo-calls to Iowans a month before the caucuses. At one point the group considered having someone dressed in a giant corn-on-the-cob costume stalk Cruz across the state. The idea was ultimately scrapped.
"We thought about bringing 'Captain Cornelius' but ultimately that's not something that we're doing," said spokeswoman Majda Sarkic of the mascot the corn-growing industry has used previously.
Other pro-ethanol forces have hit Cruz, as well. A group called the Iowa Progress Project, run by Nick Ryan, who also works for a super PAC supporting Mike Huckabee, has aired $200,000 in anti-Cruz TV and radio ads over the issue.
The fact that Cruz has topped recent Iowa polls despite his opposition to the renewable fuel standard has the corn-industry nervous. The issue has long been perceived as a third-rail of Iowa politics and the agriculture industry here wants to keep it that way.
In 2012, two politicians who supported the standard, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum, finished atop the pack. Those who didn't, Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann, finished far behind. And in 2008, Barack Obama backed the standard in his primary against Hillary Clinton.
America's Renewable Future has vowed to mobilize tens of thousands of caucus-goers next month.
"Ted Cruz's policy in the White House would be as its always been for him - devastate Iowa's farmers and its economy in order to pad the pockets of the oil industry," Branstad said.
Cruz's allies have attacked the fuel standard as a handout for "Big Corn." "The Governor of Iowa is a Big Corn cheerleader, and his son is running a SuperPAC hitting Cruz for not bowing to worship Big Corn," Cruz supporter and former Virginia attorney general Ken Cuccinelli wrote to supporters last week. "Tsk, tsk."
“....I’m pro TARP pro Stimulus pro auto union bail out pro ethanol subsidy crony capitalist Donald Trump, and I approved this message....”
see post 3 and watch heads explode PING
Slightly mixed feelings on this one.
Iowa sucks and doesn’t deserve this prominence of being first every time.
Didn’t expect this .....
It's oh-so hard to wean these corn growers off the gov'ment teet!
It serves only as physical evidence for Ted Cruz to point to that he isn’t the one who panders to special interest.
Its kind of funny really that this pro ethanol group doesn’t seem to be bright enough to figure out that they aren’t wildly popular in Iowa themselves. After all my first question for them is simple. “Why hasn’t Iowa managed to pass their own ethanol mandate”?
Bankrolled by Suckabee and the Sweatervest no doubt.
Call it what it is. It’s a pro-government subsidies group.
Oh no. Anything but that.
Indeed, every Republican who has won the Iowa caucuses dating back to the 1980s has pledged allegiance to ethanol, including former Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas, who was dubbed "Senator Ethanol" during his 1996 campaign.Cruz' position requires enormous courage and integrity. There is a reason why he stands alone.
Ouch.
I applaud Ted Cruz for his anti-ethanol stance.
Ethanol, why I get less MPG, beef, chicken and pork cost more, gas cost more at the pump than it otherwise should, I have problems with my lawn equipment, boat,ATV, and other small engines, my federal tax dollar subsidizes this,I believe it’s morally wrong to use food for fuel and it raises the price of whiskey.
Earlier this month, a pro-ethanol nonprofit group, America’s Renewable Future, launched a campaign in Iowa attacking Sen. Ted Cruz’s position on the ethanol-boosting Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) as hypocritical.
The anonymously funded radio ads hitting Sen. Cruz appear to be the work of a consultant who also runs a super PAC supporting one of Sen. Cruz’s GOP presidential primary rivals, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
Take your meds.
Cruz is backed by big oil so yeah he is against ethanol, ya got to dance with the one that bought ya.
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