LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln is denying she was the deciding vote on health care reform, a month after staking that claim during her battle for the Democratic primary.
Lincoln told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in a story published Thursday that she wasn’t the deciding vote for the overhaul that President Barack Obama signed into law. Lincoln, however, ran a television ad during her primary fight with Lt. Gov. Bill Halter that said, “I cast the deciding vote to pass health care reform.”
Lincoln defeated Halter in Tuesday’s runoff. Halter had the backing of labor unions and groups on the left that were angered by the incumbent senator’s opposition to a government-run insurance option as part of the health overhaul.
Lincoln faces Republican Congressman John Boozman in the general election.