The Arkansas Democratic Senate runoff election between Bill Halter and Blanche Lincoln is a week from today. SEIU, which has been heavily involved supporting Halter (along with other labor unions and MoveOn), has a new ad on the air today hitting Lincoln for long-time support of Wall Street banks and investment companies. Here’s the ad:
Blanche Lincoln has a long history of being in the pockets of Big Banks. In 2005 she voted in favor of the onerous Bankruptcy Reform Act. This law makes it harder for individuals to file bankruptcy and came after years and years of lobbying by the Big Banks. More recently, Lincoln voted in favor of bailing out Wall Street through TARP. Her Big Bank favoritism continued this year when she voted against putting a cap on the rates allowed for out-of-state credit card lenders. Delaware Online reported: “The amendment to the financial reform bill would have allowed all 50 states to impose individual interest rate caps on out-of-state lenders — meaning card companies would not be able to use one national rate set in the state where they are chartered.”
Isn’t it great to have Blanche Lincoln on your side? Sure, it is if you’re a Big Bank or Wall Street firm. But if you’re just a regular working American who can’t donate over $800,000 to Lincoln like the securities and investment industry, you’re SOL.
Lincoln’s recent ads have tried to attack labor for supporting Bill Halter. This is a pretty bizarre critique, considering the unions who are supporting Halter are doing so because it is what their Arkansan members want. Just putting the word “Washington” in front of the word “union” doesn’t move the target of Lincoln’s ads out of Arkansan and back to the nation’s capital. The good news is, recent polling by Daily Kos and Research 2000 shows Halter three points ahead of Lincoln, though still within the margin of error.
If you’re in Arkansas, early vote for Bill Halter. And no matter where you are, support Bill Halter for Senate in Arkansas.
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