FORREST CITY — U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln and her Democratic Party challenger, Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, each predicted victory in today’s general primary, commonly referred to as the runoff.
Speaking Monday to about 100 supporters before lunch at the Forrest City Civic Center in St. Francis County, Lincoln noted that she had lost the county in the May 18 preferential primary.
“But let me tell you, we’re going to carry it this time,” she said to applause. “We’re going to show the state, and we’re going to show the nation. The nation is watching us, watching Arkansas to see who we are, what kind of people we are. Do we stand up for ourselves and our values or are we going to be bought by special interest groups?”
Halter, campaigning in the River Market District of Little Rock, preached his message of change.
He said he’s talking about “kitchen-table issues” and will “leave for another day” talk about political questions involving what groups he will become involved with if elected.
“I am not going to be presumptuous here,” Halter said. “When the voters of Arkansas are good enough to give me the Democratic nomination, then I’ve got a five-month campaign against Congressman Boozman.”
The winner of the Democratic runoff will face the Republican nominee, U.S. Rep. John Boozman of Rogers.
During his stop of nearly an hour in Little Rock, Halter mingled for part of the time with people at the food court, chatting and passing out campaign stickers and brochures.
Polls should be open today from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Other statewide races today are:
Democratic primary for secretary of state, pitting state Land Commissioner Mark Wilcox of Wooster and Pulaski County Clerk Pat O’Brien of Jacksonville.
Democratic primary for state land commissioner, featuring state Rep. Monty Davenport of Yellville and L.J. Bryant of Newport.
There are three U.S. House runoffs:
In the Democratic primary for the 1st District ineastern Arkansas, university lobbyist Tim Wooldridge of Paragould faces Chad Causey of Jonesboro, former chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Marion Berry, who is bowing out.
In the Democratic primary for the 2nd District in central Arkansas, state Sen. Joyce Elliott of Little Rock takes on state House Speaker Robbie Wills of Conway for the seat Vic Snyder is giving up.
In the Republican primary for the 3rd District in Northwest Arkansas, state Sen. Cecile Bledsoe of Rogers faces Rogers Mayor Steve Womack in the race to succeed Boozman.
Lincoln led in the May 18 voting in unofficial results, 146,431 to Halter’s 139,770, which was about 44.5 percent to 42.5 percent for Halter. The other candidate, D.C. Morrison of Little Rock, had 42,689 votes.
The race is in a national spotlight. National labor unions are helping Halter because of Lincoln’s refusal to support a bill to make it easier to unionize. Halter has declined to say whether he’d vote for or against that bill.
Lincoln took issue with a flier her campaign says was left in black neighborhoods that contain the faces of Halter and President Barack Obama. Obama has endorsed Lincoln and spoken on radio ads on her behalf.
“[The flier] was completely manufactured and unauthorized,” Lincoln said in an interview. “You don’t just take a picture of the president and superimpose yourself andhang them on thousands of doors.”
Her campaign said the flier was paid for the Service Employees International Union, which is backing Halter.
Halter said he had not seen the flier and had nothing to do with it. He declined to say whether it was misleading but said there have been ads against him that were misleading.
“I wish folks would stick to facts and about our respective records and so forth,” Halter said.
Halter has been helped by union dollars funding independent expenditures on his behalf. He’s also been aided by people knocking on doors who are affiliated with unions and out-of-state liberal groups such as MoveOn.org and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.
At the Forrest City event, one woman complained to Lincoln about someone knocking on her door supporting Halter who rudely demanded to know who she voted for.
“Those people are not Arkansans for sure,” Lincoln responded. “Unfortunately, they are bullisome in many instances, and that’s not how we are in Arkansas.”
Halter has said he has supporters from unions, businesses and “middle-class Arkansans.” He’s also pointed out that Lincoln has received contributions from Wall Street firms.
On Friday, her campaign manager, Steve Patterson, wrote an e-mail asking supporters for money because the campaign was short for get out-the-vote efforts.
Monday, Lincoln declined to say whether she had raised what was needed.
“You can never have enough,” she said.
Through May 19, Lincoln raised $9.3 million and Halter, $3.4 million. Other groups, including unions and business interests, have spent millions more.
In other campaign news, The New York Times quoted two people Sunday saying Halter was pushed out of two jobs.
One was Lara Bergthold of Los Angeles, a political consultant who worked on the 2004 presidential campaign of Wesley Clark of Little Rock. She described Halter as overbearing and having a conservative philosophy. She said he questioned the worth of meeting with union officials.
“The one thing that united the campaign was dislike of Bill Halter,” Bergthold told the Times. “He was the only person I know of that left the campaign not of his own volition.
The Times also quoted Walter Smiley of Little Rock, the former chairman of the now-defunct Arkansas Institute which had hired Halter in 1991 to run the operation. Smiley said Halter would leave early in the afternoons to work for Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign, despite Halter having “clearly agreed” before being hired not to get involved in Clinton’s campaign. Smiley said the institute then fired Halter.
Halter described those episodes as “old issues.” He said he “absolutely not” was fired from the Clark campaign.
“With the Arkansas Institute, we definitely had a parting of ways,” he said.
Clark and Clinton have endorsed Lincoln.
The issue of Halter’s employment at the Arkansas Institute in Little Rock came up in his 2006 race for lieutenant governor when Republican candidate Jim Holt said Halter had been fired. A Halter spokesman responded then that Halter’s time there “proved not to be a good fit for the institute or for Halter, so he moved on and went to work for Bill Clinton’s campaign for president.”
Of the two episodes, Lincoln said, “It’s important for that information to get out there. It’s important for people to know what you’ve done.”
Alan Hughes, president of the Arkansas AFL-CIO, attended the Halter event in Little Rock. He said the results from May 18 show that “a lot of Arkansans feel like Blanche is out of touch with working families.”
State Rep. David Dunn, D-Forrest City, attended the Lincoln event. He said her campaign before the May 18 election underestimated the anti-Washington feeling in eastern Arkansas, which has historically given much support to Lincoln, who is from Helena.
Dunn said Lincoln was hurt in St. Francis County by that, combined with labor’s willingness to get behind a challenger and Halter’s seizing upon the opportunity. Halter beat her in the county 1,733 to 1,669.
Through Monday, statewide there were 67,981 early votes and absentee votes cast for the runoff, according to the secretary of state’s office. That’s about half the number cast early for the May 18 election.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 06/08/2010