Blue America Contest- The 5 May Senate Primaries

Although Blue America's Senate work this cycle thus far has been confined to helping raise money for funding a fellowship for David Waldman (KagroX) to work at Progressive Congress on reforming the filibuster rule, in the past Blue America-- while always being more House-oriented-- has helped elect Russ Feingold (D-WI), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), John Tester (D-MT), and Jeff Merkley (D-OR). This year we've been concentrating on the House again (as well as on shining a special spotlight on corrupt and reactionary Senator Blanche Lincoln). However...

There are five crucial Senate primaries in May-- North Carolina, Ohio, Arkansas, Pennsylvania and Kentucky. Each pits a more progressive grassroots candidate against a more conservative Establishment candidate, respectively Elaine Marshall vs Cal Cunningham, Jennifer Brunner vs Lee Fisher, Bill Halter vs Blanche Lincoln, Joe Sestak vs Arlen Specter and Jack Conway vs Daniel Mongiardo. Blue America would like to see each of the progressives fight it out with a Republican in November, a way for Democrats to capture all 5 of these crucial seats. These five primaries will go a long way towards determining if 2011 and 2012 will find the Senate a more progressive place or a more conservative place-- and, yes, it could easily be even more conservative than it has been. (Blanche and Snarlin' Arlen, for example, are on "best behavior" lately because they're trying-- believe it or not-- to win the Democratic base, but if either is re-elected we can expect them to return even more strongly to the reactionary politics that has marked their entire political careers.)

So... what could these candidates-- in the words of Barenaked Ladies-- do with a million dollars? Well, they could start to match the huge influx of corporate cash the Supreme Court has guaranteed would flow into the campaigns of corrupt Wall Street shills like Richard Burr (NC), Rob Portman (OH) and other conservative corporate suck-ups for starters. So Blue America has an idea for a little contest. We don't have a million dollars to deploy yet but we do have something no Wall Street banksters have. We have a genuine RIAA-certified Barenaked Ladies multi-platinum award for STUNT. We're going to give it to the campaign that gets the most votes at the Blue America May Senate Primaries page. A vote is a donation to your favorite candidate-- whether one dollar of one-hundred dollars. The candidate with the most votes gets the award disc to auction or to give away to one of their donors.

So, please take a look at the page and make a contribution-- no matter how small-- to either Jennifer Brunner (OH), Jack Conway (KY), Bill Halter AR), Elaine Marshall (NC) or Joe Sestak (PA). It'll be too late in November if, for example, Kentucky voters are forced to choose between Rand Paul and Daniel Mongiardo, two conservatives or between Arlen Specter and Pat Toomey, two Republicans indebted to Big Business.

There Are Some Big Senate Primaries In May

Although the newest twist in teabagmania is to repeal the 17th Amendment-- direct election of senators, an accomplishment in 1913 that had taken 100 years of progressive reformer efforts-- most people outside Glenn Beck's little world of neo-fascism think the U.S. Senate needs more democracy, not less. An extraordinarily reactionary Supreme Court just gave democracy a mighty backhand in dealing out overwhelming political power to wealthy (mostly corporate) interests which will, in effect-- if not handled quickly-- tend to make the Senate even more liable to corruption from the moneyed classes than it already is. Having state legislatures pick senators-- as they did until the 17th Amendment passed-- would make it even easier for corporate power to assert itself in the furtherance of its own bottom line goals. Other than the very wealthy and selfish, only people who crave to enslave themselves (i.e., brain-dead teabaggers) would ever support any such thing. Ex-Senator Zell Miller, a Georgia reactionary combines all those traits, along with jaw-dropping ignorance, and he has been an outspoken advocate for repealing the 17th Amendment (which has never been ratified by Georgia, South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Virginia... hmmm... what do those states have in common again?).

But outside of the teabag circuses, most American voters are starting to think about a spate of primary elections that start next month and will largely determine whether the Senate will be a body for progressive change or a tool of reactionary special interests. There are half a dozen Democratic Party primaries in May that pit progressives against... well, less-than-progressive insiders at best, raving conservative shitbags at worst.

First Up are North Carolina, Ohio and Indiana on May 4. We can cross Indiana off the list, because retiring conservative Evan Bayh worked with Indiana Democratic Party bosses to make sure there would be no primary. The bosses picked an extremely conservative Blue Dog congressman, homophobic aisle-crosser Brad Ellsworth. Chalk one up for the bad guys. The GOP has an even worse array of characters running but I'm rooting for the craziest of all, John Hostettler, since he is the most likely to be committed to an insane asylum or be defeated in 2016 if the Democrats manage to come up with an actual Democrat to run. Hostettler was endorsed by Ron Paul, but most teabaggers seem to be going for a fringe-loon named Marlin Stutzman-- anything over embarrassing lobbyist Dan Coats.

The two biggies on the first Tuesday in May are North Carolina and Ohio. In both states, progressive candidates-- Secretaries of State Elaine Marshall and Jennifer Brunner-- have forced middle-of-the-road careerists to compete, albeit awkwardly, for Democratic base votes when each would be far more comfortable claiming to be conservative enough for Republican general election voters. Lee Fisher in Ohio and Cal Cunningham in North Carolina are both uninspiring products of a political system that encourages mediocrity and political cowardice.

Yesterday's Charlotte Observer ignored the corrupt DSCC and endorsed Elaine Marshall, calling her "the best choice in the Democratic field."

We believe Elaine Marshall best combines the experience, achievement, temperament and intellect to make a promising U.S. senator.

Marshall's story is one of an underdog who has made good. Marshall became the first woman elected statewide to executive office in North Carolina in 1996, when she defeated NASCAR legend Richard Petty in a race for secretary of state. She has won re-election three times since and is the only one of this bunch to have won statewide. In 2008, she won more votes in a contested race than anyone but Attorney General Roy Cooper.

Her 13-plus year performance as secretary of state has been impressive. She was instrumental in bringing about lobbying and ethics reforms. She brought organizational skills and technological upgrades that have vastly improved the performance of her department. She is recognized for her efforts to combat counterfeit goods and protect copyrights. And she has battled consumer fraud.

She did these things with never a whiff of the scandal that has plagued so many Democrats in state government during that time.

Before winning statewide, Marshall fought for women's rights as a rookie state senator. She also practiced law and taught public school.

Marshall is authentic, smart, experienced and public-service oriented. She has taken on special interests and won.

The hand-picked DSCC candidate, Cal Cunningham, comes across as a soulless cutout whose biggest attribute is that he's not nearly as bad as incumbent wingnut Richard "Bank Run" Burr. North Carolina deserves more, and the Observer hit the nail right on the head. If you'd like to lend a hand, there's a special ActBlue page just for the May primary progressives.

The Ohio Democratic Establishment has also offered up an uninspiring promise of more of the same, in the person of Lee Fisher. He isn't a bad candidate, but he's far from a good one. Better than Bush's employment-killing trade czar Rob Portman? Well, sure. But, Ohio could do a lot better. And Jennifer Brunner is offering an opportunity for the state to have not one but two senators dedicated to fighting-- and fighting smart-- for ordinary working families. And believe me, in the U.S. Senate, that's saying a lot. There isn't anyone running for the Senate anywhere who has more to offer than Jennifer Brunner. Short of abolishing the Senate entirely, there's nothing that could be done to increase its value to this country more than to elect progressives like Jennifer and Elaine.

Two weeks later, May 18, we have the primaries in Arkansas, Pennsylvania and Kentucky. Dyed-in-the-wool conservative Blanche Lincoln, one of the absolute worst things about the Senate, would be easily beaten by any Republican running. The Democratic base in the state will simply not turn out and vote for her. The only way to prevent a GOP takeover of the Arkansas Senate seat is to nominate Lt. Governor Bill Halter, a decent moderate. The decent moderates in Pennsylvania and Kentucky, respectively Joe Sestak and Jack Conway, are also the best way to make sure those two states' Senate seats are voting for Main Street values over Wall Street ones come next January. Joe Sestak is up against two Republicans: one, Arlen Specter, who now opportunistically calls himself a Democrat; the other, a radical right sociopath, Pat Toomey, who would be too extreme for Texas or Georgia, let alone Pennsylvania. As for Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway, allow me to quote yesterday's endorsement in the Louisville Courier-Journal:

Kentucky voters have an opportunity this year to upgrade their representation in the U.S. Senate. Republican Sen. Jim Bunning, whose list of legislative accomplishments in 12 years is negligible and list of embarrassing utterances and actions is long, is retiring. It will be an easy record for hopefuls of either party to surpass.

On the Democratic side, state Attorney General Jack Conway of Louisville stands out as a superior candidate, and we endorse him for his party's nomination. He has an enviable record of policy-making accomplishment in state government and ran a principled though unsuccessful race for Congress in 2002.

Mr. Conway served for six years as a senior cabinet-level official in the administration of Gov. Paul Patton, where he was a key player in the state's 1997 higher education reforms, as well as in energy and criminal justice policy. After being elected attorney general in 2007, Mr. Conway pushed bipartisan legislation to protect children from online predators, created a cybercrime unit and successfully sued drug companies on behalf of the state's Medicaid program.

More important, however, Mr. Conway would pursue a more progressive agenda in the Senate than would his principal rival, Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo of Hazard.

Mr. Conway, unlike Dr. Mongiardo, says flatly that he would have voted for the recently enacted national health care reform. Only he seems fully aware that a measure that expands insurance coverage, prohibits denial of insurance based on pre-existing conditions and creates exchanges to lower the cost of premiums is of special benefit to Kentucky, which has higher rates of poverty and illness than the nation as a whole.

Better yet, Mr. Conway is already thinking of ways to improve health care reform, such as allowing younger, healthier adults to participate in Medicare-- a step that would provide revenues for Medicare and allow more people to take advantage of an efficient system-- and giving Medicare officials the power to negotiate bulk rates for medications. Mr. Conway also dismissively-- and correctly-- refused to join the ranks of right-wing attorneys general from some other states who are filing quixotic suits to overturn reform.

...On social issues, there is a broad gap. Mr. Conway upholds women's legal right to make their own decisions about their pregnancies; Dr. Mongiardo does not. Both candidates favor repeal of the “don't ask, don't tell” policy toward gays in the military, as do most of the nation's top commanders. But Dr. Mongiardo was a leader of the disgraceful push in 2004 to insert discrimination in the Kentucky Constitution with an amendment forbidding gay marriage.

Again, you can join me in supporting the better candidates in these primaries here at the May Primaries Senate page.

Bill Halter Is The Democrat Running Against Blanche Lincoln, Far And Away The Worst Democratic Senator Up For Re-election This Year

Even before Blanche Lincoln killed Employee Free Choice by publicly stating, at a Chamber of Commerce event, no less, that she would join the Republican filibuster of EFCA there were people working on ways to dislodge one of the most reactionary-- actually the second most-- and one of the most corrupt Democrats in the Senate. Yes, and that predated her decision to sell herself totally to Big Insurance and leave the Arkansas Democratic voters who have been her base for her entire career high and dry-- and uninsured. (Only Chris Dodd and Chuck Schumer-- both in home states of the Insurance Industry-- have gotten bigger pay-off than Blanche Lincoln in the current election cycle. She's even gotten more than any of the worst Republican insurance business shills, Chuck Grassley to Richard Burr!) Blue America's role has been running a series of very effective TV ads in the Arkansas Democratic heartland, her old turf. Largely because these people now see her for what she is-- a dedicated servant of the special interests-- she is no longer electable.

A few days ago, we added Lt. Gov. Bill Halter's donation box to both our dedicated Blanche page and to the Sending Democrats A Message page. What about the main Blue America page, the one with Alan Grayson, Marcy Winograd, Billy Kennedy, and Craig Pridemore? Uh... not yet. No one gets on that page without a very specific discussion about campaign finance reform, Afghanistan, civil liberties and protections for minorities, healthcare reform, and politics in general. No one gets up on that page until we feel pretty confident that if they get into Congress, they'll be working for ordinary American families, not for special interests. We requested an interview with the Lt. Governor. No answer yet...

Meanwhile, we're hearing all kinds of things about him, everything from him being a sterling progressive hero and a true blue something or other to him being worse or as bad as... Blanche Lincoln. A Ben Nelson doppleganger? We're taking it all with a grain of salt. Asking people to donate scarce money-- money we'd like to see contributed to proven progressives like Alan Grayson and Marcy Winograd-- to deal a resounding defeat to Blanche Lincoln is a very worthy goal. (Please give here if you are so inclined.) But declaring someone the candidate of our dreams... we learned that lesson and its dangers with Chris Carney in 2006, who had studied carefully what to tell progressives eager to hear the right thing, only to take our money, get elected and turn around and join the Blue Dogs and vote for bigotry and hatred and a corporate agenda.

Tuesday Lara Bergthold and Doug Kahn wrote a post, Is Halter A Progressive We Can Trust? that looks at it from very diverse perspectives. Lara has known and worked with him and is horrified that some-- including professional spinmeisters-- are trying to sell him as a progressive and a populist and that no one seems to be asking him the tough questions we ask all the candidates we endorse and raise money for these days. She remembers him as "a conservative Democrat who consistently and loudly touted his pro-military, pro-business beliefs" all during the Wes Clark For President Campaign, of which she was the National Political Director. Knowing full well of how truly horrible Lincoln has proven herself, Lara is urging people to slow down and take a closer look.

Doug was more-- no offense-- cynical. He seems to assume that most politicians are corrupt, self-serving buckets of slime by nature and he says it doesn't matter in this case. He has very low expectations for Halter but made a generous contribution because he wants to see Blanche defeated and because he thinks a concerted effort to raise money for Halter will encourage other politicians to address progressives seriously. "I don’t really give a rat’s ass," he wrote, "if Bill Halter believes the progressive arguments he’s mouthing. I just want him to jump on the progressive bandwagon... He’s helping make the political world safe for progressives, including all of you. If Halter flames out badly in fundraising, it makes us look like the pajama-clad slackers that Rahm and Company think we are. If he does well, we look good. If you really need to sit around nattering about Purity of Essence, well, go ahead and be like that."

Take a look at Halter on Ed Schultz and see what you make of him yourself:



A diarist at Daily Kos, ProgressiveArkDemocrat has a less kind outlook, perhaps worth considering (although commenters there seem to have already made up their mind), and Rachel Maddow's perspective is... always worth taking a look at:




UPDATE: Emily's List Weighs In-- Against Blanche!

A memo from Ellen Malcolm says it all very effectively:

Arkansas Senator Blanche Lincoln is fighting for her political survival. Republicans are in full attack mode, and polls indicate she's the most vulnerable Senate incumbent in the country.

Frankly, I'm not surprised.

As I travel around the country, I've been asked repeatedly about Senator Lincoln's political troubles and what, if anything, EMILY's List will be doing to help her win a third term in 2010.

My answer? Nothing.

In 1998, EMILY's List helped elect Lincoln to the U.S. Senate. We believed her when she told us that that, if and when the Senate took up right-wing Senator Rick Santorum's bill to ban what he called "partial birth" abortion, she would insist on a health exception that protects women.

Our members gave generously to her campaign, believing that she would steadfastly stand by the pledge she made to us to protect women's reproductive freedom.

She took our members' hard-earned money to get elected. Unfortunately, when the Santorum bill came up for a vote, Lincoln voted for it even though it provided no exception to protect women's health.

EMILY's List members are deeply committed to electing pro-choice Democratic women whom we trust to stand up for our rights, treat us honestly, and make us proud. Our candidates fight for us every day. Blanche Lincoln failed to hold up her end of the bargain.

Since she wasn't there for us, we won't be there for her.

Is Bill Halter A Progressive We Can Trust?

"But he's just as bad as I am"

Lara Bergthold is an old and trusted friend. For as long as I've known her she's been a fierce progressive activist. I've seen her in action as Chair of the Board of People for the American Way for many years, always fighting the good fight and always for the right reasons. She is the President of Production for Act III Productions, Norman Lear’s production company, and was the legendary Executive Director of the Hollywood Women’s Political Committee. In 2004 she served as National Political Director for General Wesley Clark’s presidential bid and then served as National Deputy Political Director for the Kerry campaign as a liaison to the entertainment industry.

I heard from her moments after I jumped for joy that Lt. Governor Bill Halter had announced he was going to primary Blanche Lincoln, adding him to Blue America's Send The Democrats A Message fundraising page. She wanted to know how much I knew about him and if I had spoken with him about the issues. "Well," I told her, "I have a request into his campaign for an interview, and I think I can talk with him tomorrow." She thought I should have waited to speak with him before raising money for him. I asked her to write up her own thoughts on Halter. She did:

Senator Blanche Lincoln has definitely earned a challenge from the left, but no one was more surprised than me to see that Bill Halter had stepped up in that role. A conservative Democrat who consistently and loudly touted his pro-military, pro-business beliefs running as a progressive populist? It's been a couple years since I've lived in Arkansas, but the definition of what makes someone progressive sure has changed.

I worked with Bill on General Clark's Presidential campaign in 2004, both traveling together with the General and then as National Political Director for the campaign from Little Rock. All of us who worked with him consistently saw him giving advice that favored moderate-conservative solutions to problems. Yes, he may have had a religious conversion to populism but when did it happen and what convinced him his earlier stances were wrong? Has anyone asked him the hard questions about his positions? And is there any evidence to suggest that, once elected, he will continue to espouse those positions?

Given his fervent embrace of General Clark's military background, I wonder where he stands on the buildup of troops in the Afghanistan War, or the withdrawal of troops in Iraq. Given his dismissiveness of most core constituency groups including labor, I wonder where he stands on the Employee Free Choice Act? (The Plumb Line says they have the answers to some of these questions-- at least as of now.)

His resume touts the creation of a state lottery in Arkansas. Progressive? Populist? It says he has helped organize free clinics to offer health care to people without insurance. But does that mean he'll stand up to the health insurance companies in the US Senate? Where does he stand on the public option? Cap and trade? Women's issues?

I realize we're all trying to find a way to elect someone other than Blanche Lincoln to the US Senate in Arkansas. But is this the guy? My experience with him says no, and I urge you to take a second look as well...

-- Lara Bergthold

Last night I was up on the phone really late talking with Doug Kahn about the way the Halter campaign was starting to unfold. He's as dedicated to Blanche Lincoln losing her seat as everyone else is at Blue America, and he put together a little addendum to Lara's post. I asked him for a paragraph at around 10pm, which he expanded slightly at 3am. He calls it:

HOG CALLING CONTEST

So Arkansas Lieutenant-Governor Bill Halter is running for the Arkansas Senate seat of Blanche Lincoln, and I’m kind of tickled. I don’t care that the all-knowing FiveThirtyEight has awarded Blanche Lincoln a blue ribbon as the 10th most valuable Democrat in the U.S. Senate. (Because for someone who claims to be a progressive to say that is d-u-m-b stupid.) She’s a sell-out to the Blue Dog branch of the Democratic Party, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the health insurance and financial services industries. (I’ll let Howie tell you how much she’s gotten from the corporate vampires.)

[OK, glad you asked-- she's raised $7,103,906 so far this cycle and has just over $5 million as cash on hand. Wall-Mart is her third biggest single contributor and Blue Cross/Blue Shield is her fifth biggest. In terms of industries, #1 is law firms, #2 is health professionals, #3 is Wall Street, #4 is AgriBusiness and #5 is Big Oil. In the last year she's gotten more from lobbyists than anyone in the Senate but Reid, Dorgan and Schumer, $172,985. She got the most bribes from AgriBusiness of anyone in the Senate, $551,300, almost 4 times her closest competitors, the notoriously sleazy Richard Burr and Chuck Grassley. She's gotten the 7th biggest haul from Wall Street, the third biggest haul from Big Insurance and the second biggest haul from the Medical Industrial Complex. She sure is beloved on K Street; too bad everyone back home hates her guts for selling them out.- Howie]

Blanche Lincoln and Ben Nelson and Mary Landrieu slumped over like wax candles in a heat wave when Pharma and Aetna and Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Gomorrah turned up the heat. She played a crucial role in ditching the public option (threatened to filibuster it), without which health care ‘reform’ is an affirmation of and a capitulation to the American model of health care run by bean-counters in private industry. Single payer? Hah!
 
A bunch of us have been running ads telling the rock-solid loyal low- and middle-income Democrats in Arkansas that Blanche Lincoln isn’t helping them. We think that getting her out of the Senate is a good thing even if a Republican takes the seat; it’ll give the progressive Democrats more leverage in committee. She’s the head of the Agriculture Committee, in favor of the ethanol push (moronic!) and opposed to Agriculture Department inspection regimes that make hog and cattle products safer. Don’t you want her off the Health Subcommittee of the Committee on Finance? (Max: How much facial surgery is too much?)
 
We can take a tiny bit of the credit for driving Blanche Lincoln’s polling numbers underground, and encouraging a credible primary challenge. We need the worst Democratic incumbents to lose power; and even if Halter votes exactly the way Lincoln has, he’ll have less seniority, less power. And he may give populism a boost as a credible strategy this fall; maybe even in Congress this spring and summer, on jobs and financial regulation, consumer protection.
 
Bill Halter’s campaign announcement was almost all pablum, but not entirely. He said he was proud of helping raise the minimum wage. (Don’t laugh. The idiots of the Chicago School of economics claim it raises unemployment, and we desperately need people who’ll push back against them.) He took a shot at insurance company profits. He proudly took some of the credit for getting state lottery money for 20,000 college scholarships. And he said “unemployment is at a 25-year high.” Jobs. College. Minimum wage. Dissing corporate loot. What were you expecting? Bernie fucking Sanders?
 
You’re lucky he’s even in the race. This guy is doing a primary challenge against a sitting Senator, political suicide unless he wins or Lincoln drops out (not that much of a long shot, if you ask me). And for the time being, he’s coming at her from the progressive side. He’s complimenting you people by jumping into the race! It could never happen unless you had already proved progressives can raise money for their candidates. Get a grip on yourselves and be happy there’s a perception out there that there’s such a thing as a progressive gravy train. $500 from me tonight.
 
You know what? I don’t really give a rat’s ass if Bill Halter believes the progressive arguments he’s mouthing. I just want him to jump on the progressive bandwagon. When I look at the United States Congress, particularly the Senate, I don’t see an overwhelming number of truly principled representatives of one rationally-put-together ideology or another.
 
When I see a person on TV who purports to represent a cause, or who’s been chosen as a typical example of a group (like desperate housewives, or tea-party activists, or whatever), I don’t think, “Oh, that’s what people in that group are like.” I think, here’s someone who first and foremost wants to get in front of a camera, and succeeded. A hot-dog. And if you’re thinking, “Doug, it takes one to know one,” that’s right! Bill apparently saw an empty space in the Arkansas spotlight, and stepped in to fill it up. Let’s check this one off the list and move on to the next piece of work.
 
You damn well better hope that Halter has a knack for getting in front of the camera, and that he keeps up the populist line. When he does, I’m going to throw cash money at him, try to encourage him. He’s helping make the political world safe for progressives, including all of you. If Halter flames out badly in fundraising, it makes us look like the pajama-clad slackers that Rahm and Company think we are. If he does well, we look good. If you really need to sit around nattering about Purity of Essence, well, go ahead and be like that.
 
But I think you’ll get over it, and realize this is no time to be proud (if there ever is one). I’ve basically been fairly pleased with myself, with fighting for a public option. The public option would be the beginning of the end for corporate health insurance; they’re right about that, you know. But how many decades of unnecessary suffering will this route cause on the way to single payer? I know, in the scheme of things, the public option is a pathetic shadow of what truly progressive legislation would look like, and I should be embarassed I’m aiming so low. The people I’m fighting for deserve better from me, but that’s what I’ve got. You got better game?


UPDATE

John Brummett at Arkansas News has some interesting takes on the race and he's on the ground in Little Rock and talking directly to Halter. His conclusion: "This is going to be something. A debate driven from the left in red-state Arkansas. Blanche Lincoln with $6 million and counting, and Halter with maybe that much himself by the time the on-line liberal network fully engages."

-- H.K.

Bill Halter Announces A Primary Against Blanche Lincoln

Blue America has been busy all year letting Arkansas voters know that Blanche Lincoln may have a "D" next to her name but when it comes to the key issues that impact ordinary working families and pits their interests against Big Business and Wall Street, she was, in effect, a dependable Republican shill. Politics for her has become cultivating K Street and then fast-talking the Democratic base back home. We helped make that more and more difficult for her. And now, with her approval ratings the lowest of any member of the Senate and with a virtual certainty of defeat at the hands of any Republican, she has a real primary on her hands.

This morning Lt. Governor Bill Halter declared the would enter the May 18th primary against her. (Next week is the deadline for filing.) I spoke with Halter a few months ago and he said he had no intention of running. I feel certain he didn't. But as Lincoln's approval in the state collapsed, he has come to realize that he is the only chance the Democrats have to hold onto the seat. He will run a populist campaign against Big Business and for ordinary working families. He should be able to defeat Lincoln among a Democratic electorate that now sees right through her, although the corrupt and reactionary party establishment in Little Rock will stick with the Blanche Lincoln suicide train.

Establishment Democrats, meaning party insiders, didn’t like Halter anyway, certainly don’t like him now and will rally the apparatus, to the extent it exists with effectiveness, to push him back.

Right away we need to see if Halter, whose impetus into this race is from the unlikely left, favors card check, cap-and-trade and the health care reform bill as advanced by Harry Reid and modified last week by the White House. Those are three good opening questions for him when he files tomorrow. The state’s business establishment, meaning the chambers of commerce, the Farm Bureau, the utilities, will be scared to death of Halter.

Meantime, there’s been an interesting dynamic lately as I’ve been around the state talking to this group and that. It’s that I deliver some remarks about the anti-Obama fervor in the state and how Lincoln is caught up in it, and then the first question I get is from some liberal mad at Lincoln from the other direction over health care or estate taxes.

Politics is largely about passion, and I see none for Lincoln and the potential for some for Halter.

Blue America just added Bill to our Send The Democrats A Message ActBlue page, in case you'd like to help him get his campaign message out. Blanche has raised over $7 million so far and has over $5 million on hand much of it from the sleaziest special interests in Washington (and Arkansas).

Will Blanche Lincoln Retire And Allow The Democrats To Keep The Arkansas Senate Seat? Fat Chance!

This morning I was informed by David Donnelly, head of the Public Campaign Action Fund, that Arkansas' most corrupt senator, ole Blanche, is so confused about what her job actually is, that she's complaining she had to take time off from meeting with check-writing lobbyists to spend time working on Senate business. She actually had the temerity to publicly complain that she lost $300,000 in "contributions" by having to be in the Senate when she could have been at fundraisers! Donnelly:

"While we're thankful that Sen. Lincoln was able to skip out on fundraisers to do her job, it's scandalous that members of Congress are forced to even make the decision. An untenable and unsustainable campaign financing system has forced members of Congress to juggle the pressure of crafting good policy with the requirement to raise millions of dollars from special interests to win re-election.

"The Fair Elections Now Act would free members of Congress from this fundraising treadmill and allow them to spend their time focused solely on the challenges facing our country. Until its passage, the Senate floor schedule will be forced to compete with Senators' fundraising schedules. We hope Sen. Lincoln will sign on as a co-sponsor of the legislation."

The Fair Elections Now Act, sponsored by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.), would end the reliance on special interest cash by providing candidates the option to run a competitive campaign for office with a blend of limited public funds and a 4 to 1 match on donations $100 or less. The House bill currently has the broad bipartisan and cross-caucus support of 124 co-sponsors.

If you follow Blue America with any regularity, you're probably aware that we will only endorse incumbents who are already co-sponsors of the Fair Elections Now Act and we are only endorsing challengers who are eager to become co-sponsors when they are elected. So far our only endorsee for 2010 is Alan Grayson, a co-sponsor. Next Saturday we will make our first endorsement of a challenger, who aggressively supports the Fair Elections Now Act, always has, and is campaigning on it. With reactionary courts stocked by Reagan and a couple of Bushes with rapib supporters of the status quo, campaign finance reform is in big trouble and needs concerted congressional action. Blanche Lincoln isn't a supporter of reform and, in fact, is a rabid opponent of the kind of real campaign finance reform that would shut down her disgraceful finance operations.

As you probably know, Blue America has been running TV ads about her perfidy-- primarily healthcare related-- since June. It's taken a toll on her standing and she is considered the senator most likely to be defeated. We've learned a great deal about how to effectively advertise in Arkansas and we're still at it-- and will be until Blanche Lincoln is looking for some honest employment. This week we're running one of our four ads again, but only in the heavily Democratic areas along the Mississippi River, counties in which no Democrat can win statewide with racking up landslide victories. Blanche will not be racking up landslide victories in these counties. The ad-- which has been paid for by Blue America donors-- makes the connection between bad healthcare legislation and bad campaign finance law. Take a look:



This week Blue America's longtime, intrepid media buyer, Jacquie, called me steaming mad. Although Blue America is part of the Glenn Beck boycott, hundreds of dollars in ads had just run on his shows all across Arkansas. She was ready for war, ready to eviscerate the cable TV networks from Little Rock to Fayetteville to Texarkana, El Dorado, Jonesboro and back to Little Rock. Instead she did something much smarter and more reasonable. She called the companies, got full refunds and placed new ads in the 7 Democratic counties across from Memphis. After all, we don't care if our ads get run all day and all night on Glenn Beck's shows-- as long as we're not helping him pay off his tax fraud case-- by giving him any ad revenues. If they want to run free anti-Lincoln ads on Beck, extolling the virtues of clean government and healthcare reform, they're welcome to do it as much as they'd like. And since Glenn Beck ads in Ft Smith cost $67.00 and $91.00 and the same ads running in our target areas cost as little as $3.00... well, Blanche Lincoln will be feeling a lot of pain this week again.

So Jacquie put together a powerful schedule of "free" ads up and down the Mississippi River communities of east Arkansas-- the state's Democratic heartland-- with a lot of emphasis on USA, TNT, TBSC, BET, and SPK meant to reach African-American women over 30, a powerful voting demographic concerned about both healthcare reform and clean government. I doubt Glenn Beck's viewers are interested in either but I'm sure they appreciated the anti-Lincoln sentiments anyway-- and the ads were, in the end, free. If you'd like to help us keep our Blanche Lincoln ads running-- her polling numbers are catastrophic and predictive of the kind of cataclysmic defeat that should make her reassess her plans and trade her Senate seat for an ambassadorship to Albania or Papua. Arkansas' popular Lt. Governor, Bill Halter, a moderate, could keep this seat in the Democratic column. Lincoln should do what Chris Dodd just did-- step aside for a Democrat who can win.