Halter Falls Short in Arkansas; Billionaire Whitman Buys California Win
In the Arkansas Democratic Senate primary runoff yesterday, working families came within a few thousand votes of unseating a two-term incumbent. Meanwhile, in California, this fall’s governor’s race will pit Main Street vs. Wall Street following yesterday’s primary elections.
With the backing of Arkansas unions and working families, Lt. Gov. Bill Halter ran “a courageous campaign,” against Sen. Blanche Lincoln, says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. Halter forced the runoff last month before coming up short yesterday. Trumka praised Halter for:
Taking a two-term incumbent in deep red Arkansas into a runoff, and coming within a few thousand votes of her, is a virtually unprecedented achievement. If working families were able to accomplish this in Arkansas, imagine what they can achieve in other states.
Arkansas Working Families Ramp Up Final Push for Halter
Arkansas AFL-CIO President Alan Hughes says the June 8 U.S. Senate Democratic primary runoff between two-term incumbent Sen. Blanche Lincoln and Lt. Gov. Bill Halter “is going to be very close.”
It was union members, he says, that two weeks ago forced what was once considered a sure win for Lincoln and her Wall Street and corporate backers into a runoff with Halter and his progressive, working family agenda. In an e-mail to union voters, Hughes says:
With your help again, we can defeat Lincoln and truly hold her accountable.
With the runoff just days away and early voting already under way, Arkansas unions, Working America, the Alliance for Retired Americans and other allies are reminding their members about Lincoln’s close ties and big campaign cash from Wall Street and Big Banks, the insurance industry and other corporate interests, and pointing out how her voting record is littered with votes for her contributors. Says Hughes: Read the rest of this entry »
Lincoln Parked on Wall Street, Working Families Drive Halter Bid
One week from today, Arkansas voters will have a choice between two-term incumbent Sen. Blanche Lincoln and her long record of corporate coziness or Lt. Gov. Bill Halter and his progressive agenda based on the interests of working families.
The June 8 U.S. Senate Democratic primary run-off is firing up working families and union voters across the state. These are the same voters who mobilized and turned what was supposed to a Lincoln slam-dunk in the Senate primary to a near dead heat race and ultimate run-off election.
Lincoln lost working family support over her votes to send jobs overseas and support bad trade deals. She also has been strongly funded by corporate cash and reversed her support for the Employee Free Choice Act.
Working Families Force Arkansas Runoff, Boost Critz to Pa. Win
In a Pennsylvania special congressional election yesterday, working family voters pushed hard and played a big role in electing Democrat Mark Critz over a Republican who staked a large part of his campaign on overturning health care reform.
In the Arkansas U.S. Senate Democratic primary, union-backed and progressive Attorney General Bill Halter forced two-term incumbent Sen. Blanche Lincoln into a runoff. Lincoln lost working family support over a track record of voting to send jobs overseas via bad trade deals. She also was backed by corporate cash and reversed her support for the Employee Free Choice Act.
But Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.), who had the backing of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO, lost his bid for re-election to Rep. Joe Sestak (D) in the Keystone State’s Senate primary.
Halter: Vote Pits Working Families Against Lincoln’s Corporate Campaign Cash
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Arkansas Lt. Gov. Bill Halter (D) says the state’s working family voters can send a message to Washington when they go to the polls May 18 to choose between Halter or Sen. Blanche Lincoln in the Democratic U.S. Senate primary. That message:
“It’s time for people in the Democratic primary to stand up and support progressive Democrats, and not to support those folks who are coming in with the biggest campaign contribution from a PAC.
This is about whether we are going to fight for working men and women or whether we are going to fight for the folks who come in with a $5,000 contribution.”
Arkansas working families have endorsed Halter in the race against Lincoln, whom Halter said has received “over $1 million in campaign contributions from Wall Street and other financial institutions over the course of her career.” Speaking recently to a luncheon of retirees from Laborers (LIUNA) Local 1282, Halter asked the crowd:
You all heard of Goldman Sachs? Sen. Lincoln has accepted $29,000 in contributions from Goldman Sachs. As soon as this broke, I asked her to give it back. She said “No.”
Blanche Lincoln, The Senator From Virginia
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This is a crosspost from Blue Arkansas.
Nice house, right? Certainly nicer than almost anything you see regularly here in Arkansas. Guess who owns it. That’s right, Blanche Lincoln. (It’s in her husband’s name.) And guess where it’s located. Helena? Nope. It’s located in Arlington, Virginia. That’s right, Senator Lincoln, the person who’s spent her whole campaign trying to scare people about Bill Halter being rich and childishly calling him “Dollar Bill,” has a home worth over 2 million bucks IN VIRGINIA! Read the rest of this entry »
Blanche Lincoln Got $1.3 Million from Wall Street
Speaking yesterday to members of the Machinists, Arkansas Lt. Gov. Bill Halter didn’t mince words about why Big Banks haven’t been held accountable by Congress: Washington insiders like Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln have failed to pass financial reform legislation because they owe Wall Street.
Halter, who’s challenging Sen. Blanche Lincoln in the state’s Democratic primary, said that while taxpayers put $700 billion into a bailout for these Wall Street investment banks and commercial banks,
you and I wake up to see front-page headlines about Wall Street investment bankers and investment executives pulling down literally tens of billions of dollars in bonuses at the same time this is going on.
Hey, Blanche Lincoln: We Take Care of Working Families and We’re Union
In Arkansas, where Sen. Blanche Lincoln has been attacking working families and their unions in her re-election for the Senate seat, working families are coming out strongly for Lt. Gov. Bill Halter as their choice in the Democratic primaries. Lincoln, who took $576,900 in labor donations throughout her political career, has supported the exportation of more than 19,000 jobs from Arkansas by her backing of trade agreements that don’t include safeguards for U.S. jobs.
In a video clip by Communications Workers of America (CWA) locals 6507 and 6508, a union member puts it this way:
Blanche Lincoln is bad for working families. Bill Halter supports working families. That’s why we’re working so hard to get him elected. We think it’s time for a change in Washington.
Meanwhile, members of AFGE Local 2054 take on Lincoln’s attacks against Halter, whom she describes as taking money from big unions in Washington, D.C. In a video clip, the group of health care workers and other public employees sends a message to Lincoln in unison:
Blanche Lincoln, we take care of America’s working families right here in Arkansas. And we’re union.
Lincoln Attacks Arkansas Working Families; Families Don’t Blanche
Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) who this week launched a television ad slamming working families as “outside interests” is continuing her descent into “yet another hypocritical, flip-flopping D.C., politician,” says Arkansas AFL-CIO President Alan Hughes.
Lincoln in recent months has piled up a Senate record opposing working families–including voting to send jobs overseas via bad trade deals, reversing her initial support for the Employee Free Choice Act and opposing health care reform legislation with a public health insurance option. Arkansas unions now have endorsed Lt. Gov. Bill Halter (D.) in the upcoming U.S. Senate primary. Says Hughes:
Lincoln has ignored the interests of working people in Arkansas too many times. It’s easy for her to try to paint opponents as outsiders, but working-class voters in Arkansas can see as well as anybody that she has turned her back on us. Read the rest of this entry »
No Republicans Whined When Bush Made 171 Recess Appointments
Earlier this week, Republicans proved the lesson we all learned in school, “the majority rules,” doesn’t apply to the U.S. Senate. With every single Republican vote and two from defecting Democrats (see below), Republicans sustained a filibuster against Craig Becker’s nomination to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
After the vote, President Obama cited the filibuster against Becker and Republican holds on more than 60 of his nominees and said he would consider using recess appointment strategy to break the stranglehold the Republican minority has put on the nominees.
When Congress is in recess, as it will be next week, a president may appoint someone to a post without congressional action. The recess appointment lasts through the current session of Congress.
