"Outside groups fuel heated Ark. Senate race" by Associated Press | May 11, 2010
LITTLE ROCK — The race has become a referendum on key parts of the national Democratic agenda, including the health care overhaul, climate change regulations, and union organizing. Democratic activists hope it will settle whether conservative Democrats such as Senator Blanche Lincoln, the two-term incumbent, can go their own way as members elsewhere fight for the party’s most progressive goals. Also in question is whether populist, union-backed candidates such as her opponent, Lieutenant Governor Bill Halter, can win in a conservative state.
“It appears to me that labor and the Chamber of Commerce are waging what appears to be a national civil war here,’’ said Skip Rutherford, former chairman of the state Democratic Party and dean of the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service.
I'm sick of wars and the MSM that promotes conflict even where there is none.
The primary election race has already cost more than Lincoln’s entire 2004 campaign. Outside interest groups have spent more than $2.1 million on television ads in the last few months. Total TV spending, including the candidates’ spots, reached $5 million before early voting began last week, according to Kantar CMAG, which tracks political ads.
How many foreclosures would that have prevented?
Firefighters or teachers saved in your town?
And yet it is all being wasted with politics.
Also see: Clear the Court: Signing the Campaign Checks
One controversial attack ad has drawn national attention. On Friday, Halter filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission about a 30-second spot featuring Indian-American actors “thanking’’ him for allegedly outsourcing jobs to India.
Congress has been complicit in that for years. Lincoln sure has some nerve.
The ad, which referred to a company where Halter had served on the board of directors, was aired by Americans for Job Security, and was denounced for playing up ethnic stereotypes.
Labor unions, which are usually a minor political player in this right-to-work state, are here in force. The Service Employees International Union has spent more than $1 million on television and radio ads, as well as on door-to-door canvassing for Halter. Arkansans for Change, a union-backed organization, has spent nearly $1 million.
Related: Executive Payday: Raytheon Rewarded by Labor
Screw labor.
Lincoln, the chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, is one of the Senate’s most vulnerable incumbents, which has heightened interest.
“The fact that this race is so tight and so competitive lends itself to attracting outside organizations and outside money,’’ said Dave Levinthal, spokesman for the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonprofit organization that tracks campaign spending.
Most polls have suggested that Lincoln is ahead, but not by enough to win outright in the May 18 primary. A third candidate, D.C. Morrison, a Little Rock businessman, could force a runoff between Halter and Lincoln. Polls also suggest Republican US Representative John Boozman is ahead among the eight Republicans seeking the GOP nomination for Lincoln’s seat.
Whoever comes out of that Republican field is going to win in November -- in what will be remembered as the GREAT INCUMBENT TURNOUT of 2010!
