In just two short months, voters will decide if Blanche Lincoln will get the democratic nomination to retain her U.S. Senate seat or if that will go to someone else. It will be either Lieutenant Governor Bill Halter or D.C. Morrison of Little Rock. Lincoln has come under fire about her health care reform ideas and opponents are looking for their chance to nab the Senate seat.
"You look at my record. I have stood up for everything you all are interested in and things you think are important," Lincoln told a crowd at a Saturday town hall meeting.
Lincoln is connecting with voters after experiencing low approval numbers. The left is upset she didn't support a public health care option and more conservative voters wish she didn't support health care reform at all.
Now special interest groups are launching ads. One group, Arkansans for Change, depicts Lincoln as someone interested more in corporations than workers.
Lincoln said, "there's a lot of special interest groups that are trying to come into the state and tell people who I am and what I'm about, but the fact is I'm going to remind them that I fight for Arkansas."
The Lincoln campaign says the negative attacks are backed by unions that support Halter in the race. Halter's campaign claims it didn't know about the ad. It's focused on Halter's town hall meetings. He plans to visit every Arkansas county in the next 2 months.
Halter said, "we've faced Arkansas voters before statewide. We won by 15 points in the general election so I feel good about our prospects.
Early in his primary bid, Halter promised if elected to never accept a pay raise as long as there's a deficit and to never become a lobbyist after leaving the Senate. It's part of his stance against the influence of special interest groups on Washington.
We plan to work on that during the campaign and after," he said.
In addition to the democratic opposition 8 republicans want the GOP nomination for the Senate race. The democratic and republican primaries happen May 18th.
