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ARKANSAS: “Senator Blanche Lincoln held off a strong challenge Tuesday from a fellow Democrat to prevail in the battle for the party’s Senate nomination, giving her a chance to win a third term in November,” the New York Times reports.
The paper adds: “It was the busiest primary day so far this year, a coast-to-coast series of contests that amplified many of the existing themes that have crystallized as the parties select their nominees for governor, the House and the Senate against a backdrop of high unemployment and a sullen economy. But the results also underscored the individuality of the midterm campaign and the unpredictability of the next five months.”
The Washington Post’s Dan Balz writes, “In a year of voter anger that has put incumbents in both parties on the defensive, Lincoln battled back against organized labor and progressive groups that had targeted her for defeat, salvaging her nomination for a third term.”
“'Organized labor just flushed $10 million of their members' money down the toiled on a pointless exercise,’ a White House official told Politico’s Ben Smith after the Arkansas race was called against labor-backed Bill Halter.
How Lincoln won, per the AP: "Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln survived a bruising Democratic runoff thanks to former President Bill Clinton's starpower and her argument that labor unions were trying to interfere in state politics." And here was the message: "I think this race became bigger than me and bigger than Bill Halter," Lincoln told The Associated Press on Tuesday night. "It became about whether or not the people of Arkansas, who are great people, were going to continue to be hammered by special interest groups that simply wanted to manipulate them and their vote."
NEVADA: “After years of maneuvering, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid got the race he wanted,” the Las Vegas Sun writes. “Sharron Angle, a former Reno assemblywoman and Tea Party favorite, emerged from Tuesday’s Republican primary, lifted to a landslide by a solid base of conservative supporters but carrying political baggage that experts say gives the embattled Reid a new lease on political life.”
Looking to the fall, the AP writes that last night was "the start of an epic showdown between a king of Capitol Hill and a conservative renegade who wants to turn Washington on end."
The Boston Globe points out that Angle "wants to scrap the Department of Education, phase out Social Security, and dump nuclear waste at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain."
SOUTH CAROLINA: “State Rep. Nikki Haley of Lexington fell just short of winning outright Tuesday’s Republican primary for governor,” The State writes. Haley and runner-up Gresham Barrett, “who previously have tussled in televised debates over who is the true conservative, will face off in a June 22 runoff unless Barrett concedes the race before then.”
The Washington Post has some fun facts on Haley, who with 49% could not avoid a runoff with Barrett, who got 21% of the primary vote: “This is not the first time Haley has upset her party's political establishment. In 2004, at age 32, she challenged state Rep. Larry Koon (R), a 30-year veteran and the state's longest-serving representative. Koon's family settled in the Lexington County district in the 1730s; Haley had lived there for five years.”
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This win for Senator Lincoln is troubling. I'm not so sure she's going to get any big support from progressives for her Fall campaign, which is unfortunate, since I would like to see this seat kept in the Democratic column. But there's no desire to help her right now.
I hope Presidents Clinton and Obama can help her in November, like they did these past few weeks. She's going to need it. There would have been much more money and grassroots assistance for Bill Halter.
This seat may very well be gone in November. And that's a shame.
Perhaps, the greater political minds can explain the difference to me regarding outside political influence. Many were dismayed when the SC ruled it was okay for corporations to donate to campaigns. Yet, big labor spent $10M in a state with little union activity in order to punish Blanche Lincoln and send a message to other Dems that buck the union's priorities.
Granted, unions may have larger numbers of people but both entities have huge amounts of money for donations and influence. So, what's the difference between the two? Why is one okay and not the other?
Personally, I think that campaigns should be publicly financed period. No outside money at all and no candidate can use any of his or her private funds for the campaign. I also believe there should be a time frame of 60 days from the date of the election that all campaigning is done.
I believe that one of the main reasons that people in this country no longer like each other very much is that we are always in the midst of some campaign or another, in the midst of gearing up for some campaign or another, or being deluged with a morass of advertisements for the campaign that might be coming at some foreseeable time in the future.
Get rid of all of that and I think you'll see the tone of the public calm down quite a bit.
Michael - Couldn't agree more with you, at least in theory - seems like the polls have barely closed in one election before the campaigning starts for the next one, and the amount of money spent anymore on tv advertising is obscene. I'm not really sure which aspect of that I find more troubling - the "Golden Rule" aspect - i.e., the guy with the most gold (either his own or what he can raise) gets to make the rules - or the idea that elections are actually being decided on the basis of 15-second tv ads or who has the most signs planted on the off-ramps of the interstate as opposed to actual debates or voting records. Even when I strongly support a given candidate, I always kind of feel like I try to rationalize THEIR over-spending because the other guy started the attack ads first, or because the importance of getting my guy elected and in a position to advance the policies I approve of somehow outweighs how they get there. Either way, it ends up seeming that the end justifies the means, and no matter how noble the end, I'm just not comfortable with that.
But since I value your opinions, I guess my question is, how do you define "campaigning"? I know other countries have things similar to the 60-day rule you mentioned, and it always sounded like a good idea, but how does it actually work? I can see how you could restrict activities like tv advertising to 60 days (though when you think about it, even 60 days is way too long for the kind of crappy tv ads we're bombarded with!), but it just seems like almost every politician starts campaigning for the next time the minute they finish taking the oath of office, and they take advantage of the 24/7 news cycle so that everything they do or say while in office could really be considered "campaigning" in some sense - town halls, news conferences, speeches on the Senate floor, even high school graduation speeches and ribbon-cutting ceremonies all seem to be a campaign forum these days. As I'm thinking this through here, it almost sounds like I'm making a case for term limits, which I've always opposed, so I don't think that's part of the solution.
But I'm intrigued with your suggestion and think it has a lot of merit - I'm just wondering how the details would actually work.
Realize it's already afternoon and I still don't quite have the handle on the new format in terms of when people are still responding as opposed to moving on to the next thread, so hope this catches up with you or vice-versa.
Thanks!
Michael and Joanne, thanks for your thoughts. I agree there should be a time limit and on spending. Our elections should not be about who has the most money. I'd also like to see a change in the primary voting. Why is Iowa deciding who our candidates will be? If people lose in IA, then they're pretty much out of the race though they might really be the best candidate for another part of the country. And, in regard to primaries, they shouldn't be spread over months, months.
Dirt, If that is you real name. Well, well look who's talking about campaign funds, term limits, donations from corporations etc. First of all , check out your Boy King on the above. It was he who multitasked all the following. If you are so dare to go back over all his campaigning you will find all the above , even donations in the trillions from the Arab world ,especially from the Saudis. So you DINOS should be the last to be talking about reform of the American electoral system. The Annointed ONE is the chief bottle washer. You DINOS have made America famous in the international world with two things. The dumping ground for foreign electoral dollars and illegal aliens with the double aim of maintaining power. A superb strategy isn't it? Really, talking about campaigning, I'd love to see the campaign books for the Annointed ONE for the last election. Boy , would that be a journalist's dream!
We Democrats are so laughing that Scary Sharry Angle won last night against Lady Cluck Cluck Lowdown Sue Lowden. Yeah she's the tea party alright, really looney. Harry Reid is going to win comfortably against this Wicked Witch of Nevada as she'll never live down her desire to eliminate Social Security, bring back Prohibition and she's one of those looney Scientologists of L Moron Hubbard. If Democrats are smart they'll make Scary Sharry Angle the face of the GOP nationally and tie her crazy ideas to the repugnant ones nationally. Obviously she's the wrong Angle for America to take.
Rest assured that Tricky Nikki Haley is going to never hear the end of her adultress action, better believe the loser repugnant ones will make it a big issue for her runoff. Her offer to resign if anyone can prove she did cheat on her husband is a rather false way of denying she is an adultress. Maybe she could take a lie detector test huh?
No incumbent with Harry Reid's negatives in his home state is going to "win comfortably" in November 2010, Eric...now you're just being silly.
The truth is, the Nevada Senate campaign is a contest between Harry Reid and "anybody but Harry Reid".
I'll acknowledge that Reid got the opponent he wanted in Sharron Angle...let's see if he still feels that way the Wednesday morning after Election Day.
It doesn't matter who his opponent is in this political environment...he's in trouble.
His chances of survival in November are only marginally better than Blanche Lincoln's.
Eric:
Well you just keep laughing because no one else in your party is. You just keep on disrespecting these women to whom you don't know.
This is a good thing when women and minorities are nominated. I guess it is only a good thing when they are Democrats in your feeble mind.
Eric from Salinity you loser, Your rants don't scare anyone. The Tea Party will enable the RINOS to win the next election. But keep on ranting since this is the only thing you know. See the results, from the primary. You lost. As for Lincoln, she'll have to face the RINOS . She won't survive.
Eric from Salinity, We RINOS are laughing so much at Alvin Green, the child pornographer that your party has endorsed. Is that what the Democrats have come to now? Putting up child molesters and porno people to run for office? Perhaps, your party can check the police records , there are plenty of them waiting to join the Democratic Party. We should start investigating the party for those who are hiding inside of it.
Arkansas voters decided but I can't help wondering if the lack of polling places (from 40 down to 2) in districts where Halter won big played a role in Lincoln's victory. The question I have is how many polling places were available in other districts.
The main point I hope was made is that Lincoln got the message from Halter's challenge--stop playing ball with big business campaign donors and start voting for the good of the people. Ark is a low-wage state and its people would have benefited greatly by a public option insurance plan, it was highly supported by Ark citizens of every political stripe and Lincoln ignored what they wanted in an effort to save her seat. I'm not sure if she can win in November with anti-incumbent fever at a high pitch but she pulled this one out.
Many people complain about unions but it is those unions that gave nonunion employees company health care benefits, 8-hr days, 5-day weeks, overtime pay, competitive living wages, and a host of other benefits ALL of us enjoy. People complain that jobs are moved overseas because of Unions but I disagree; jobs are moved overseas because WE want cheap products just like we don't want to pay taxes yet expect the same level of quality from our federal, state and local governments. We complain about potholes and snow removal but expect the cost to be funded by Elves.
Good point. I was wondering last night about the closing of all those polling places and what effect it would have on Halter. This almost sounds like Ohio and election tampering.
Those polling places were closed because they weren't needed. They close them in Texas all of the time but we just keep it moving to the next one that is open. I have been back in Texas for a few years and have not voted in the same place twice yet. No big deal. If Walmart was closed you just go to Target and most think nothing of it.
If you want to worry yourself about something going on in someone else's state then go right ahead because YOU can't change anything.
I was not suprised to see Blanche win. I was hoping the challenger would have won as I feel he may have had a better chance to keep this seat in the DEM asile. November will tell, hope she gets some help from the powers to be.
I was watching Joe Schmo this AM. Somebody needs to cap and cork him. Maybe we can get BP in on this. He actally was defending Rush and Glenn Beck this AM. I guess that is to be expected from a RUSH Wantabe.
It is refreshing to see women running for higher office. They did have a great night last night. I am just not sure that the best of the best have been elected to represent their parties. Time will tell on this as well.
Currently our politics seems to be running on the emotional train. I hope by November we get back to those things that really help Americans, like jobs, reducing the budget, education, health care and holding all those scum bags accountable for their evil deeds like BP and Wall Street.
Has anybody seen any of the big mouth Repugs say anything against BP on the Oil Spill. Where is Chuckles and his gang on this?
Pat,
I agree, I think Democrats will lose Lincoln's seat is November. Big mistake!!!
Congratulations to Nikki Haley and Blanche Lincoln on their nominations. Haley overcame a slew of last minute, sleazy negative crap from the opposition and will probably, in the very, very red state of South Carolina, be the next governor there. Whether she is competent at all will be determined over the long run based on her policies and the impact they have, but out of the four people running, she did seem the least reprehensible.
Lincoln, I think, is probably in for a less optimistic outcome. Arkansas has gradually grown redder and redder since the days when Clinton was governor there. It is one of the few states in which Obama actually drew less votes as a percentage than Kerry did in '04, which is not a good sign for any democrat, (whether they are really a democrat or not), trying to run there.
Personally, though I understand intuitively that having Lincoln in the senate is probably better philosophically for me, I still can't really come up with any words of support for her. What am I supposed to say?
"Come on back, Blanche! Do some more obstructing along with the right wing for the next six years?"
"Come on back, Blanche! Make sure that you do your best to draw out some more controversial issues so that the partisan rancor gets really nasty before finally making up your mind!"
Just sort of hard for me to do. At any rate, I guess I should also congratulate Angle for her nomination as it's the polite thing to do. I think she's pretty much 100% concentrated right wing lunacy though and that sort of thing should never really be encouraged.
Some think that Lincoln may have learned her lesson and will act (and vote) more like a democrat. I'm not so sure. Most politicians have huge egos and when they win, feel vendicated regarding their previous actions. If she were to win, I wouldn't be surprised if she becomes a loose cannon, going off in all directions.
Ron,
A serious question. What do you mean she needs to act like a Democrat? I thought Congressional leaders are suppose to represent EVERYONE in their district or state. Arkansas has more Republicans than Democrats so she has to tow a line that a Peosi, Durbin, or shumer does not have to. This is what I would expect from a Republican from the Northeast. I may not like it but it's all about where you're from.
Now I can understand if Lincoln wins, she may be a little upset with Democrats therefore voting with Republicans a lot. I would say you can't blame her and vice -versa.
Let's see when Clinton was caught (proven with the blue dress) with his pants down, "oh it's a private matter"
But when there is an allegation of an affair (not proven yet) "she an adultress and she should withdraw".
Eric, once again, nothing nice to say, just a lot of garbage. The sure sign of a simple mind!!