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Arkansas: Winners and Losers

June 10, 2010    Content provided by DDC Advocacy

The political media and Internet blogs are filled with differing analysis as to whether Big Labor won or lost by spending over $10 million in attack ads to defeat Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln. They put the big money behind Lt. Gov. Bill Halter not only to defeat the moderate Democratic Senator, but to show others what will happen if they dare to cross the party's most powerful special interest ally. The unions' candidate lost, but they probably achieved their goal of keeping all the other Democrats in line.

While Lincoln beat back what appeared to be an avalanche of advertisements against her and defied the pollsters who all showed her losing by single digits (she ended up winning 52-48%), the pundits are missing who might be the biggest winner of the evening: GOP nominee John Boozman, Arkansas' lone Republican Congressman who won his primary outright on May 18th. Particularly when considering the unions' post-run-off announcement that they will not help Lincoln in the general election, Boozman now faces a crippled incumbent who dropped below 50% in her own primary and then barely won a much lower turnout run-off. Though the Senator successfully captured re-nomination on Tuesday, is she so weakened that she can't overcome Boozman's substantial early lead? Quite possibly. Lincoln won the battle, but she probably still loses the war. Her road to victory in November didn't get any smoother.