LITTLE ROCK -- Sharp words and millions of dollars in television advertising are turning a Democratic primary challenge to two-term Sen. Blanche Lincoln into an outsized duel over the party's direction in the heartland.
Backed by national labor unions and Democratic activists, Lt. Gov. Bill Halter is attacking Lincoln from the left as an uncertain senator who too often tilts right on issues from Wall Street and health care to the environment.Halter contends that the seat is as good as lost to resurgent Republicans if the centrist Lincoln wins the May 18 primary... MSNBC host Rachel Maddow drew appreciative laughter during a recent talk at the Clinton School of Public Service when she said of Lincoln, "It's one thing to be a conservative Democrat. It's another thing to act like you don't want to be a Democrat at all."
Emily's List abandoned Lincoln, as did labor unions..."Our members have been watching Blanche's votes. They've decided enough is enough. We're not throwing our money down the well and getting nothing back from it," said Alan Hughes, president of the Arkansas AFL-CIO, referring to earlier support for Lincoln. "The final straw," he said, was her decision to join Republicans in opposing the nomination of labor lawyer Craig Becker to a seat on the National Labor Relations Board.
An early devotee of former president Bill Clinton, a fellow Arkansas Rhodes scholar who is supporting Lincoln, Halter served in the Clinton administration and returned to Arkansas to run for office... Counting on an anti-incumbent mood among voters, Halter cites the fact that she has spent four years in the House and nearly 12 years in the Senate with just two years off since winning her first term.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/04/AR2010040402222.html?nav=rss_email/componentsThis should be interesting. I hope Blanche Lincoln gets what's coming to her.
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