CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA — How did Mitt Romney end up holding his town hall in a government-subsidized agri-business plant that profits from the same factors that pinch ranchers and American families’ budgets? Oddly enough, he was there thanks to an Obama supporter on the board of the feed-supplement company.
It’s an interesting little lesson in the way campaigns depend on personal and local connections.
My Examiner colleague Hayley Peterson reported on the hokey rhetoric at Romney’s Cedar Rapids event at Diamond V Mills, but she also tweeted on the novel odor, which resembled a “mixture of rotten bananas and puppy chow.” The source of this smell was the bags and bags of a powdery supplement to animal feed. That supplement is what Diamond V makes.
So what made Diamond V the right place for a Romney town hall? It’s a family-run business that’s doing pretty well, but the symbolism of the place didn’t resonate. There’s no symbolic reason to pick a feed-supplement company whose sales are driven by rising feed prices (feed prices driven up by increased demand in the developing world and, of course, ethanol subsidies). Rising feed prices are bad for ranchers and bad for consumers, but good for Diamond V – not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it doesn’t quite send the ideal message.
There are other reasons Diamond V isn’t the perfect symbol for Romney: four months ago, the profitable company pocketed $75,000 in taxpayer subsidies from the Iowa Department of Economic Development Board.
So, what was the draw?
Jack Evans, formerly a financial executive in Cedar Rapids, and a Romney supporter for the past two election cycles, told me that the Romney campaign reached out to him, looking for a good Cedar Rapids venue. Evans’ wife, who is gregarious and friendly like her husband, is a college professor but she also sits on the board of Diamond V. Also, Nancy is a big Democrat. She supported Obama four years ago, and she’s supporting Obama again this year.
But Nancy Evans made it happen, and bam, there we were, dozens of reporters, a couple hundred Romney supporters, and dozens of slightly bemused Diamond V workers.
