LITTLE ROCK — U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., filed for re-election Monday amid heckles and jeers at the state Capitol and pledged to battle “extremes” from both parties.
Earlier, Lincoln, already expecting a tough fight from Republicans, learned she’ll face a primary election opponent. Lt. Gov. Bill Halter announced he would run for U.S. Senate in the Democratic primary and is scheduled to file candidacy papers today.
Before heading to the Capitol, Lincoln, 49, of Little Rock, greeted about 100 supporters at her campaign headquarters a few blocks away.
“We’re not giving up to extremism,” Lincoln told them. “We’re going to be working hard ... so people know what Arkansas values are all about. I don’t answer to parties. I answer to Arkansas.”
The week-long filing period for state, judicial and federal candidates in Arkansas began Monday.
Critics were ready for Lincoln. About 20 people, some supporters of the “tea party” movement, which has opposed stimulus spending and a health-care revamp, held signs in the second-floor rotunda, where candidates were waiting in line to file papers with the secretary of state’s office.
Lincoln arrived at the Capitol with her mother, Martha Lambert, 80, of Helena-West Helena.
“I pray a lot,” Lambert said, laughing, of the opposition her daughter faces from both ends of the political spectrum. “But she’s a good girl. She’ll do what’s right.”
Lincoln rode the elevator to the second floor before opponents took notice. After greeting Democratic officials and giving interviews, she emerged from behind the marble columns.
Soon chants against her began.
“Bye bye, Blanche! Bye bye Blanche! Bye bye, Blanche!” hollered protesters.
A secretary of state’s staff member led her to a table to fill out paperwork as four Capitol police officers stood by.
About four or five protesters kept up the chants.
“Hey hey, ho ho, Blanche Lincoln’s got to go!” they said.
One man, James Denoyer, 32, of Malvern, was particularly vocal.
“We’re going to fire you!” he said.
He then referred to Lincoln’s having said months ago that some vocal protests at public forums about healthcare legislation went too far and were “un-American,” a remark she soon retracted.
“Blanche, are we un-American?” Denoyer called out. “Are tea parties un-American?”
Then state Sen. Randy Laverty, D-Jasper, intervened,calling Denoyer “noisy and rude” and telling him “you showed your ass.”
Another protester told Laverty he probably supports Democrats and President Barack Obama.
Laverty said he was “very proud” to say that he does.
Lincoln then waited in line with all the other candidates to be certified. She heard a few more protests but they soon fizzled out.
Afterward, she said she was emboldened by the events of the day.
“Maybe I feel even stronger in the sense that I really believe as Arkansans we have a lot to offer,” she said. “I’ve made it clear throughout my career that I answer to Arkansas. I feel comfortable going out there and doing what we got to do.”
Also filing for the U.S. Senate on Monday were three of the eight Republicans who have said they are running for the GOP nomination - U.S. Rep. John Boozman of Rogers, Fred Ramey of Searcy and Curtis Coleman of Little Rock.
Boozman said there seems to be an anti-incumbent mood among voters this year.
“I think every incumbent is a victim of that to some extent,” he said. “When people look at my record, when they look at my record of supporting trying to create jobs, trying to protect the jobs that we have got in Arkansas, I think I have the ability to step forward without a tremendous learning curve, and go ahead and build on that and push forward.”
Lincoln said she didn’t know what to think of Halter’s candidacy.
“I don’t really know Lt. Gov. Halter that well,” she said. “I don’t know what his positions are. He doesn’t have a record. Other than the lottery, I’m not sure I really know what they are. I feel very good about our chances in the Democratic primary. I’m prepared for it.”
Boozman said Halter’s entry will “have a big impact. I am really not sure exactly what that impact will be, so it kind of remains to be seen.”
Lincoln won a four-way Democratic primary in 1998 for an open seat created by the retirement of longtime Sen. Dale Bumpers. She beat Attorney General Winston Bryant in the runoff before beating Republican Fay Boozman in the general election.
She faced nominal opposition in the Democratic primary in 2004, beating Lisa Burks of Hot Springs by a 5-to-1 ratio. She beat state Sen. Jim Holt of Springdale in the general election.
Holt is among the other five Republicans announced for the U.S. Senate this year.The others are Randy Alexander of Springdale, state Sen. Gilbert Baker of Conway, state Sen. Kim Hendren of Gravette and Conrad Reynolds of Conway.
In his announcement, Halter released a statement touting his successful push for Amendment 87, passed by voters in 2008, which allows the Legislature to create lotteries for college scholarships.
He offered no details about his positions on federal policy. He didn’t address news media. Spokesman Bud Jackson said Halter would do that today.
“This is not a decision I make lightly,” Halter’s statement said. “Serving Arkansas as your lieutenant governor for the past three years has been an incredible honor. In the end I cannot stand by while jobs are shipped overseas, seniors are pushed to the brink and big banks and insurance companies get bailed out while Arkansans are left to pay for a mess we didn’t create.”
A liberal advocacy group, MoveOn.org, announced Monday it would support Halter, calling Lincoln “one of the worst Democrats in Washington, siding with corporate interests to obstruct progress.”
The group is bothered by her opposition to a publicly funded health insurance option and her opposing allowing the Environmental Protection Agency to regular greenhouse gas emissions.
Days ago, MoveOn.org said it polled its members and the result was that they wanted Halter to run. A MoveOn spokesman said the group has about 20,000 members in Arkansas.
Unions have been unhappy about Lincoln’s opposition to a bill that would make it easier for workers to unionize.
Republicans have opposed her vote for the federal stimulus plan and for a compromise health-care revamp.
A poll by the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville in November reported that 43 percent of respondents said they favor the job Lincoln was doing, down from 54 percent in 2008.
Showing their support at Lincoln’s rally were U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., state House Speaker Robbie Wills, D-Conway, and about five other legislators, including Rep. Keith Ingram, D-West Memphis. Ingram unsuccessfully during the recent legislative session tried to strip the lieutenant governor’s office budget.
Pryor touted her position as chairman of the Senate Agricultural Committee.
“When times are tough, you’ve got to have a senator who is willing to put party labels aside,” Pryor said. “You have to have a senator who won’t cave in to the powers that be and what they want. You have to have a senator who will stand up and stand firm for Arkansas. We have that senator. Her name is Blanche Lincoln.”
Lincoln recalled when she first ran for Congress in 1992, with her mother helping her campaign. In that race, she defeated incumbent District 1 Rep. Bill Alexander in the Democratic primary.
“We made it through because we believed in Arkansas,” Lincoln said.
She left Congress after two terms to have twin boys before running for the Senate in 1998.
“When I became the youngest woman ever elected to the United States Senate, I never doubted, never ever doubted, that my voice was needed where so many decisions impact children and families and seniors and veterans. I’ve also been raising my own family. The fact is that makes me a better senator.”
She said she helped form the Senate’s “Hunger Caucus.” As chairman of the Agriculture Committee, she will play a role in how legislation providing federally-funded school lunches for low-income students is re-authorized. She said she’s thankful she can afford “healthy snacks” for her children.
“Hunger is a disease we can cure,” she said.
She said she looked forward to a campaign in which she can advocate for “rice farmers in DeWitt” and other members of “my favorite people in the whole wide world, the good people of Arkansas.”
Lincoln said “outside special interests” are “plotting to gain control of this Senate seat” and will spend millions of dollars to oppose her.
“I know it,” she said. “I’m the rope in the tug of war, folks.” Information for this article was contributed by Michael R. Wickline of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 03/02/2010