Tag: Blanche Lincoln

Blanche Lincoln catches a break:

Former interim U.S. Attorney and Karl Rove aide Tim Griffin says he’s no longer considering running for the Republican nomination to challenge Sen. Blanche Lincoln next year.

Griffin said Sunday that he’s focused on his other responsibilities, including his service in the U.S. Army Reserves’ Judge Advocate General’s Corps as a major. Griffin told The Associated Press that he thinks Lincoln, a Democrat seeking a third term, is still vulnerable and will keep a close eye on the race.

Who knows what “keep a close eye on the race means” – maybe he’d let himself be dragged back into it in the future. But for now, at least, Griffin is laying down his arms. And it’s a good thing for us, too, as the lone poll of this race showed him quite competitive with the incumbent Lincoln. Griffin has all sorts of baggage, as a Rove acolyte who was at the epicenter of the Alberto Gonzalez-US Attorney scandal – but still, we’re better off without him in our faces, since the GOP bench is otherwise not terribly strong:

State Sen. Kim Hendren, as one Republican operative recently put it, “that Jewed” himself out of the race with his completely inappropriate reference to Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. State Sen. Gilbert Baker has yet to make up his mind. That leaves Curtis Coleman, the Little Rock biotech executive, who recently formed an exploratory committee. He’s the only candidate inching toward the race.

Lincoln may get very lucky in the end.

• PA-Sen: It looks like the threat of a primary from the left may be having some of the desired effect on Arlen Specter. He’s engaged in negotiations on a compromise version of EFCA, and said yesterday that “prospects are pretty good” for such a bill (although it remains unclear what exactly would get cut from the bill).

• NY-Sen-B: Kirsten Gillibrand will receive an important endorsement tomorrow: from NARAL. This may help solidify Gillibrand’s pro-choice credentials in the face of possible Senate primary challenges from Reps. Steve Israel or Carolyn Maloney.

• DE-Sen: Rep. Mike Castle, the one guy who can make the open Delaware Senate race interesting, isn’t promising anything right now. Castle set a decision-making deadline of “the next two months,” though. (Unclear whether that’s two real months or two Mark Kirk months.)

• AR-Sen: In the wake of state Senator Kim Hendren’s comments about Chuck Schumer yesterday, a more competent sounding Republican has surfaced to take on Sen. Blanche Lincoln. Curtis Coleman, the CEO of SafeFoods (a “food-safety services company,” whatever that is) and a close friend of Mike Huckabee, announced formation of his exploratory committee this week. Former US Attorney and Rove protege Tim Griffin may also get in; he’s announced a June 1 deadline for deciding.

• KY-Sen: Rand Paul, the son of Rep. Ron Paul, moved one step closer to running in the Republican Senate primary (theoretically against Jim Bunning), launching his exploratory committee.

• NY-Gov: Observers are noting that Rudy Giuliani is definitely not looking like a candidate for next year’s gubernatorial race. The tipoff is the recent departure of at least three key staff members, including former chief of staff Tony Carbonetti.

• MN-Gov: This should be something of a red flag to Tim Pawlenty: 57% of Minnesotans, according to SurveyUSA, don’t want him to run for a third term as Governor. A lost gubernatorial race would basically doom his 2012 presidential aspirations, so this may up the chances of an open seat instead.

• KS-Gov: New Democratic Governor Mark Parkinson appointed a new Lt. Gov., Troy Findley. Unfortunately, Findley promptly announced that, like Parkinson, he won’t be running for Governor in 2010, leaving Kansas Democrats with bare shelves in both the open senate and governor’s races.

• CA-36: Earlier this week, Marcy Winograd (who got 38% of the vote against Jane Harman in the 2006 Democratic primary) officially kicked off her campaign for a rematch.

• Gay marriage: We’re on the precipice of gay marriage in one more state, as New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch confirmed that he was willing to sign it into law. One catch: Lynch wants a slightly different bill, that includes additional language stating that churches aren’t compelled to marry anyone they don’t want. The legislature is expected to move quickly to add the new language.

• Demographics: Hispanics and Asians are still the fastest-growing groups in America, but their growth rates have slowed down in recent years as the economic downturn has cut into immigration. In particular, Hispanic growth in the Southeast slowed down. This pushes back projections of when the U.S. becomes a minority-majority country, to the 2040s. In other census news, Orange County, Florida (Orlando) became a minority-majority county in the last year (good news for Alan Grayson as he attempts to hold FL-08).

• Redistricting: Utah has an initiative on the table for the 2010 election, proposing an independent redistricting commission (instead of letting the overwhelmingly GOP legislature draw the boundaries). Interestingly, the idea just got a prominent Republican backer: former 11-term Rep. Jim Hansen.

• DNC/RNC: The RNC seems to win the fundraising month for March, in a bit of a split decision. The DNC reported $7.57 million in contributions last month, while the RNC pulled in $6.7 million. However, $2 million of those Democratic dollars were transferred from the Obama campaign. More ominously, the RNC is sitting on $23.9 million cash on hand and no debt, while the DNC has $9.7 million cash on hand and $6.9 million in debt.

• IL-Sen: Hot on the heels of his $845 fundraising quarter, the new Rasmussen poll shows Roland Burris might want to make some post-2010 plans. 4% of respondents say they will “definitely” vote for him and 54% will vote against, with 39% saying it depends on who’s running. 62% think he should resign, with 24% believing he should remain in the Senate. (The poll doesn’t test Burris in any head-to-heads.) The poll also finds Jesse Jackson Jr. looking badly tarnished in the wake of the Blagojevich implosion: his favorables are now 32-63. One other tidbit that makes Lisa Madigan’s job harder if she runs for IL-Gov: Pat Quinn’s job approval is a surprisingly high 61-37.

• AR-Sen: Blanche Lincoln has drawn at least one legitimate challenger for 2010: state senate minority leader Kim Hendren has announced his candidacy. Hendren has self-funding abilities and a strong base in northwest Arkansas (the traditionally Republican part of the state), which at least gives him a leg up in the primary. Hendren, however, is old (71)… old enough that one claim to fame is that he lost a race to Bill Clinton (the 1982 gubernatorial primary, when Hendren was still a Democrat)… and promising to serve only one term. Lincoln defeated state senators in both her 1998 and 2004 bids.

• NV-Sen, NV-02: GOP Rep. Dean Heller says that “his plan today” is to run for re-election, but he’s also refusing to rule out a run against Handsome Harry Reid. (J)

• IL-14: After getting their pants kicked in by Democrat Bill Foster in two consecutive elections, the Illinois GOP may turn to the Name You Know in 2010 — Dennis Hastert’s son, Ethan. 31 year-old Ethan Hastert, a Chicagoland attorney, says that he’s “exploring” a run for his dad’s old seat, and is already polling his name against Foster in a trial poll. Ethan’s previous claim to fame: serving as assistant to Lewis “Scooter” Libby. (J)

• FL-05: Jim Piccillo will be challenging Ginny Brown-Waite in this light-red district. Piccillo has an interesting backstory: no previous political experience, and was a Republican until last year when he was driven away by the tenor of the campaign, but the recipient of a lot of media exposure after being profiled by the NYT in a feature on Florida Republicans abandoning the party. At least he sounds better than this guy.

• DE-AL, FL-10: Our top-shelf Democratic recruits have launched new websites: John Carney and Charlie Justice. (D)

• Polltopia: Our friends at Public Policy Polling are once again letting readers decide which Senate race they’ll poll next. The choices: Georgia, Illinois, and Oklahoma. Get busy voting and then tell us which race you picked in the comments. (J)

• NJ-Gov: The latest poll of the New Jersey governor’s race shows that things aren’t getting any worse for Jon Corzine, but he is settling into a deep rut. Fairleigh Dickinson finds that he loses 42-33 to Chris Christie, the same 9-pt margin as their previous poll one month ago (41-32). Corzine’s approval rating is 40/49, and he beats even nuttier GOPer Steve Lonegan by only 37-36. There is some good news, though: he’d still win in a Democratic primary, if for some reason senate president Richard Codey or Newark mayor Corey Booker challenged him.

Could An incumbent Democratic governor of New Jersey come back after trailing by double digits in the polls for most of the campaign? It happened once before, when Gov. Brendan Byrne beat Republican Raymond Bateman, despite being down as much as twelve points in September of 1977. “Hopeful” at Blue Jersey does some excellent digging through the archives to tell Byrne’s story. (D)

• VA-Gov: National politics just injected itself into the Virginia governor’s race in a big way, as the GOP-held House of Delegates rejected $125 million in federal stimulus funds that would have extended unemployment benefits. Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell supported his party’s callous move.

• AK-Sen: Ted Stevens just filed his exploratory paperwork to get his old job back, by running for senator in 2014 (when he’ll be 91). Don’t actually expect to see Ted 2.0, though; his spokesman says it’s just a receptacle to receive donations that came in after the November election.

• FL-Sen, NH-Sen: In other unlikely comeback news, though, this one appears to be for real: Bob Smith, the former senator from New Hampshire, has filed the paperwork to run for Senate again… in Florida, where he now lives. This seems odd, since there are political titans jostling for the Florida nomination while the New Hampshire nomination still seems to be pretty much free for the asking. (As an indication of how far down the totem pole the NH GOP is looking, Ovide Lamontagne, last seen losing the 1996 gubernatorial race, is now eyeing NH-Sen.)

• AR-Sen: Mediocre polling and pressure on EFCA seem to have gotten Blanche Lincoln worried, but she may be able to breathe a little easier after her first quarter fundraising haul: $1.7 million, with $1 million of that coming at a campaign kickoff event headlined by Joe Biden.

• MI-Gov: Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson has announced that he won’t seek the GOP nomination for the governor’s race next year. Patterson narrowly led the primary field in a recent poll, so that leaves a wide-open field with a possible advantage to 2nd-place finisher Rep. Pete Hoekstra.

• TN-Gov: State senator Roy Herron entered the race for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, joining former state house majority leader Kim McMillan and Nashville businessman Ward Cammack. Mike McWherter, son of former governor Ned McWherter, also seems a likely candidate.

• PA-06: We have at least a warm body lined up in PA-06: Doug Pike, who hasn’t held elected office but wrote for the Philadelphia Inquirer for a number of years, was an aide to Paul Tsongas, and is the son of Rep. Otis Pike (of New York). A better-known candidate may still crop up, especially if Rep. Jim Gerlach follows through on his likely plans to bail on his increasingly-Democratic seat (Obama won 58-41) and run for Pennsylvania governor instead.

• IL-05: Congratulations to our newest House member, Mike Quigley. The Cook County Commissioner won the special election in this safe Dem seat last night, defeating GOPer Rosanna Pulido 70-24 (with the balance going to Green Party candidate Matt Reichel). (There were only about 34,000 votes cast in this election, compared with about 58,000 in the primary, since that’s where all the action was.)

• AK-Sen: Gov. Sarah Palin will not be challenging Sen. Lisa Murkowski in the 2010 senate primary; in fact, she’ll be assisting Murkowski with raising money (despite simmering tensions between the two factions). It remains to be seen whether she’ll be running for re-election as governor in 2010, or bailing out after one term to focus on the 2012 presidential race (which, geographically speaking, is hard to do from Alaska).

• VA-Gov: If there’s one thing Terry McAuliffe is good at, it’s raising money. He raked in $4.2 million in the first quarter for his gubernatorial campaign. He started April with $2.5 million CoH as the race heads toward the June 9 primary.

• IA-Gov: With Iowa’s Supreme Court having effectively made same-sex marriages legal, the 2010 governor’s race could turn into a proxy referendum on the issue (with Gov. Chet Culver unwilling to amend the state constitution to block the courts). And this may draw a higher-profile challenger to the race: nutty GOP Rep. Steve King, whose name has been occasionally associated with this race, says the sudden rise of this issue makes him “more likely” to enter the race.

• GA-Gov: As noted by fitchfan28 in diaries, state House minority leader Dubose Porter has thrown his hat into the ring for the Democratic nomination for Georgia governor. He joins AG Thurbert Baker and former SoS David Poythress as announced candidates, with former governor Roy Barnes scoping out the race as well.

• NJ-12: Rush Holt may receive a credible challenge in 2010, from Fair Haven mayor Mike Halfacre, who just filed exploratory paperwork. Fair Haven is in Republican-leaning Monmouth County; the district as a whole, though, is blue, if not overwhelming so (Obama won 58-41).

• EFCA: In the wake of yesterday’s announcement that Blanche Lincoln would oppose EFCA’s current form, two more moderate Dem wafflers got off the fence in favor of EFCA (or, more technically, in favor of cloture): Mark Udall and Mark Warner. Campaign Diaries has a very handy head count, indicating that possible passage is still very close, and an unpacked version of the bill (for instance, containing the binding arbitration portion, leaving ‘card check’ for another year) may still be passed.

• CfG: With Pat Toomey about to leave the helm of the Club for Growth to pursue his senate bid against Arlen Specter, they need someone new to wave the sword for the circular firing squad. Looks like the job may fall to yet another ex-Rep who brought the crazy to a swing district, Chris Chocola. (Chocola got bounced from IN-02 in 2006 by Joe Donnelly.)

• Omaha-Mayor: In last night’s Omaha mayoral all-party primary election, former GOP Rep. Hal Daub (himself a former Omaha mayor) squeaked into first place with 35.6% of the vote to Democratic concilman Jim Suttle’s 34.3%. Republican Councilman Jim Vokal came in third, picking up 28.2% of the vote. New Nebraska Network’s Kyle Michaelis argues that despite the Republican candidates picking up more votes overall, Daub’s weak finish is not a good sign for his chances in the general election. (J)

• MN-Sen: After the court-ordered opening of the 351 previously rejected absentee ballots, Al Franken’s lead just grew to 312 votes (up from 225 votes after the hand recount). Although the Minnesota Supreme Court still has to rule on some miscellaneous issues (the possibility of some double-counts), these questions affect fewer than 300 ballots, meaning that it is now mathematically impossible for Norm Coleman to prevail.

• RI-Gov: After backing off and saying he wouldn’t decide anything until May, it seems like Lincoln Chafee has turned around again and has officially formed his exploratory committee. He will be “putting together a plan that will lay the groundwork for an Independent campaign for governor in 2010.”

• PA-Sen: Arlen Specter has come out firing against Pat Toomey’s likely primary challenge… and he’s already shooting blanks. He had to pull down and revise his attack ad for a factual error. He had accused Toomey of having traded credit default swaps while a Wall Street trader in the 80s (turns out CDSs hadn’t been invented yet at that point). Trying a new tack on today’s Morning Joe, Specter said that Toomey is too conservative to win statewide, accusing him of being “to the right of Rick Santorum.”

• AR-Sen: Looks like Wal-Mart may have sent Blanche Lincoln a cheap Chinese-made horse head for her bed. Lincoln, who supported the Employee Free Choice Act last time it came up, has announced she won’t be supporting it this time around, at least “in its current form.” Even if Franken gets seated and Specter flip-flops again, this probably defers EFCA until after 2010 (unless it passes in a gutted form).

• NV-Sen: John Ensign is making his first speaking appearance in Iowa later this spring. Signs of a presidential run? Possible, considering the paltry lot the GOP has on tap so far. This is of SSP interest primarily because Ensign is up for re-election in 2012 and would leave behind an open seat in this newly blue seat in order to run.

• IL-Sen: Big first-quarter haul for Treasurer (and Friend of Barack) Alexi Giannoulias, the only announced candidate for IL-Sen so far. He pulled in $1.1 million, none of which was from corporate PACs.

• FL-Sen: When asked for his assessment of Florida Gov. Charlie Crist’s job performance, Democratic Senate candidate Kendrick Meek dodged the question, telling the St. Petersburg Times that “I haven’t yet reviewed his work”. Sharp answer! (J)

• FL-Gov: Hey, pallie – you better watch it! Charles Bronson says he’s going to run for governor of Florida if Charles Crist runs for the Senate. And you thought Charles Bronson was dead! Wrong again, pallie! (D)

• FL-02: State senator Al Lawson, who’s primarying Allen Boyd from the left, seems like he won’t be pulling punches in going after Boyd. Lawson (who’s said a few Blue Doggish things of his own in the past) says “From my perspective, a Blue Dog is just a closet Republican,” and is “committed to being a true Democrat.”

• LA-Legislature: There were three special elections in Louisiana legislative races over the weekend (a Democratic senate seat in Opelousas, a Democratic house seat in New Orleans, and a GOP house seat in Baton Rouge suburbs). Despite the GOP contesting all three seats, Democrats held the line in their two open seats (including one to replace Don Cravins, who’s moved to Washington). The candidates in both runoffs will be Democrats, meaning Dems will hold their 4-seat edge in the senate and 1-seat edge in the house.  

• IL-05: It’s special election day in the dark, dark blue 5th. Cook County Commissioner Mike Quigley faces off against GOP activist (and Minutewoman) Rosanna Pulido and a Green party candidate. In a big surprise, SSP will not be liveblogging the results.

Public Policy Polling (PDF) (3/20-22, “Arkansas voters,” no trendlines):

Blanche Lincoln (D-inc): 48

Gilbert Baker (R): 37

Undecided: 16

Blanche Lincoln (D-inc): 46

Tim Griffin (R): 37

Undecided: 16

(MoE: 4%)

State Senator Baker and former US Attorney Griffin are both unknown to over half the state, so these numbers aren’t too impressive for Lincoln. What’s more, her approvals are just 45-40. (Strangely, PPP did not ask for presidential approval ratings.) Still, she has $7 million on hand and will get all the help she needs. And neither of these potential opponents are at anything more than the “rumored” stage yet.

More discussion in Conspiracy’s diary.

(Hat-tip: Political Wire)

UPDATE: My mistake – PPP released Obama ratings yesterday. The President’s job approval is 47-45. Also, Dem Gov. Mike Beebe (up for re-election in 2010) is at 68-20, “the best ratings of any politician PPP has polled on in the entire country over the last year.”

From PPP via Taegan:

“45% of voters support the job she’s doing while 40% say they disapprove of her work. Hurting Lincoln’s numbers are poor marks from independents, only 31% of whom say they approve of her performance while 50% rate her negatively. 73% of Democrats but only 22% of Republicans express approval.”

Lincoln (D) 48

Baker (R) 37

Lincoln (D) 46

Griffin (R) 38

http://www.publicpolicypolling…

I wonder if the hard right turn in Arkansas as evidenced by the surge to McCain last November is something more permanent. After holding out for so long is it finally catching up to the rest of the South?

{Originially posted at my blog Senate Guru.}

Roll Call has a new article online focusing on Republican attempts to win in 2010 the Senate seat held by Democratic Senator Blanche Lincoln for the last ten years.  The content of the article is a clear statement on how Senate Republicans’ only weapon besides obstruction-by-filibuster is toothless bullying.

The article begins by telegraphing how Republicans will attack Senator Lincoln over the course of the 2010 cycle:

This cycle, the NRSC has stepped into the Arkansas race early, attempting to soften Lincoln’s poll numbers with attacks on her support for the stimulus legislation and for sending “mixed signals” when it comes to the Employee Free Choice Act, according to an NRSC press release. And when Lincoln announced late last month that Vice President Joseph Biden would join her at her 2010 campaign kickoff this weekend, the NRSC was quick to blast the two-term Senator for being out of touch with voters back home.

“Senator Lincoln’s support for runaway Washington spending and her refusal to take a position on ‘card check’ despite representing a right to work state, are among a few of the important issues we are bringing to the attention of her constituents,” NRSC spokesman Brian Walsh said on Monday.

Let’s take a look at the foolishness contained in this passage:

(Much more below the fold.)

1) The NRSC attacks Senator Lincoln as being “out of touch” with Arkansas voters because Vice President Joe Biden is attending her campaign kick-off.  So, um, how popular is the Obama-Biden administration right now?  I believe the levels are historically high (as are the folks at the NRSC, apparently).  Here is a link to the rather comical release.  Among the ‘reasons’ that the NRSC gives for why ‘palling around’ with Vice President Biden proves Senator Lincoln is “out of touch” with Arkansans is that McCain-Palin won Arkansas’ electoral votes in 2008.  I wonder if the NRSC staff will apply that same standard when they opine about the re-election bids of Iowa’s Chuck Grassley and Pennsylvania’s Arlen Specter, as well as the campaigns of those who win the Republican nominations for Senate in Florida, New Hampshire, and Ohio.  Note to Senator Lincoln: Republicans will call you “out of touch” no matter what you do.  If you dive to the right in order to deflect their attacks, it won’t work because they’ll keep attacking no matter what.

2) The NRSC attacks Senator Lincoln’s support for what they call “runaway Washington spending.”  The NRSC’s ridiculous attack press release linked above does not reference a single vote of Senator Lincoln’s, only criticizing Vice President Biden’s record as a U.S. Senator.  However, the NRSC has already dispensed a stock attack against Senator Lincoln for her support of the economic stimulus bill earlier this year.  Note to Senator Lincoln: Republicans will claim you support “runaway Washington spending” no matter how you vote.  Even if you oppose every bill that includes a dime of spending, Republicans will attack you.  If you dive to the right in order to deflect their attacks, it won’t work because they’ll keep attacking no matter what.

3) The NRSC attacks Senator Lincoln on what they call “card check,” refering to the Employee Free Choice Act.  If Senator Lincoln strengthens American workers by supporting the Employee Free Choice Act, Republicans will attack her, sure.  Although, if Senator Lincoln caves to Republican bullying and votes against it, all that will do is drive a wedge between her and organized labor, a key source of support for Democrats.  However, caving to Republicans on this issue won’t bring an end to Republican attacks.  Note to Senator Lincoln: To put it simply, Republicans will attack you no matter how you vote.  The more you cave to their attacks, the more credence you give their attacks.  Work to gain the approval of Arkansas’ families and workers, not the NRSC.

After offering the silly stock Republican attacks against Senator Lincoln, the article goes into who the Republicans might recruit to oppose Senator Lincoln:

When it comes to taking on the Lincoln machine, the Republicans mentioned most often right now include state Sen. Gilbert Baker, who represents a Little Rock-based district, and Little Rock Attorney Tim Griffin, a former special assistant in the Bush White House who briefly served as U.S. attorney in Arkansas. …

Outside of Griffin and Baker, Republicans are also looking to Rogers Mayor Steve Womack and Little Rock banker French Hill – who served as a special assistant under Bush for economic policy – as possible 2010 Senate candidates.

Let’s take a look at what this list of potential recruits says about Republican prospects against Senator Lincoln:

1) Nowhere in the article is Republican Rep. John Boozman mentioned.  Rep. Boozman is the only Republican member of Arkansas’ Congressional delegation.  Given that every – I repeat: every – Constitutional officer in Arkansas is a Democrat, Rep. Boozman is basically the top elected official in Arkansas.  That the NRSC didn’t even see fit to make sure his name was included means he is out.

2) Similarly, the absence of any mention of former Gov. Mike Huckabee reiterates Gov. Huckabee’s insistence that a 2010 Senate run isn’t in his future.

Two of the four mentioned possible recruits are guaranteed to turn AR-Sen, in no small part, into a referendum on George W. Bush more than on President Obama or Senator Lincoln.

3) Tim Griffin is a Karl Rove protege who Cheney-Bush-Rove tried to install as a U.S. Attorney amid their notorious Attorney Purge.  Griffin is also a former RNC staffer credited with engaging in the racist voter-suppression tactic of “vote caging.”  Speaking of Griffin being a Rove protege, even Twitter betrays Griffin’s Rove-philia:

4) The other Bushie mentioned as a possible candidate is French Hill, whose name sounds a little – what’s the word? – French!  As the article notes, French Hill was a “special assistant under Bush for economic policy.”  Hmmm, someone refresh my memory.  How does the public regard George W. Bush’s economic record?  Really, I beg the AR-GOP to put French Hill forward as their Senate candidate.

5) The first non-Bushie possible recruit mentioned is state sen. Gilbert Baker.  Though not a member of George W. Bush’s administration, he has not managed to avoid scandal.  First, Baker went to bat “as a character witness for a campaign worker and Republican officeholder who’d repeatedly brutalized a woman and was subsequently convicted of kidnapping. Some supporter of women.”  Here’s the situation:

Recently, Baker sent out a press release claiming the issue of women’s rights is one he takes “seriously”. However, in 2005 Gilbert Baker asked the 1st Division Faulkner County Circuit Court for “leniency and mercy” for a campaign worker of Baker’s who repeatedly beat his female victim, held a knife to her throat, smothered her until she threw up, and  using a cigarette lighter burned her multiple times.

Baker testified repeatedly as a character witness to help the defendant, also an elected Republican constable. The defendant was accused of rape, and convicted of kidnapping and assault against a Faulkner County woman. According to Circuit Court documents, Baker testified twice for the man, after knowing the horrible facts of the case and even admitted the defendant had “done wrong.”

Baker acknowledged that this heinously degenerate person had “done wrong” and he still offered his testimony as a character witness multiple times (because this degenerate was a campaign worker?).  Pretty grotesque.  Another scandal, far less grotesque but nonetheless inappropriate, was also aired for public consumption.  Baker’s son allegedly received preferential treatment at the University of Central Arkansas (UCA) and Baker used public property belonging to UCA for a campaign fundraiser while Baker delivered over half a million dollars to in public money to UCA.  The credibility of the allegations (particularly as a possible quid pro quo) were furthered when it was revealed that UCA President Lu Hardin used money from his discretionary fund to buy gifts for Baker.  Will the AR-GOP and the NRSC turn to this person, who appears to abuse his political power and defends his campaign workers when they abuse women?

6) The last possible recruit is Rogers Mayor Steve Womack.  Rogers is a city of about 50,000 residents, putting in the bottom half of Arkansas’ top ten most populous cities, and Womack was first elected Rogers’ Mayor in November ’98.  By not being a Bushie or a character witness for someone who brutalized a woman, Womack should automatically become the most desirable of the four recruits to the NRSC.  I don’t know much about Womack aside from an episode of anti-immigrant fervor.  Womack wanted to task local law enforcement officers with enforcing federal immigration policy.  When the Mexican consulate in Arkansas wanted to discuss the issue with Womack, Womack gave the consulate the cold shoulder:

It was a bad week for …

ROGERS MAYOR STEVE WOMACK. He treated rudely a request by the Mexican consul in Little Rock to talk about Womack’s plan to use police officers to crack down on immigrants, pleading more important business at a golf tournament. Womack intends to send cops full bore after people without proper working papers, not, you may be sure, the people who hired them.

Womack could simply veil his anti-immigrant policy under the guise of populism.  Womack is, perhaps, the most unknown of the named possible recruits – and that might be his greatest strength as a Republican candidate in 2010.

After running through the underwhelming list of possible Republican Senate recruits, the Roll Call article ends with Republicans warning Senator Lincoln that, if she doesn’t vote the way they want her to, she’ll be in big, big trouble:

“Right now, we’re all watching her card check vote,” said Karen Ray, whose last day as Arkansas Republican Party executive director was Monday. “If she votes yes on it, the repercussions here will just be enormous.” …

Griffin said he too would be watching Lincoln’s votes carefully.

“There will be a number of other pieces of legislation where she will have to decide between being an Arkansas conservative or being a Washington liberal,” he said.

I have two responses to this closing section of the article:

1) “The repercussions here will just be enormous.”  Senator Lincoln, watch out!  If you don’t vote the way the National Republican Senatorial Committee wants, they will attack you.  However, if you vote the exact way they want you to every single time, they will… they will… they’ll still attack you!  These “enormous repercussions” that Republicans rattle on about are absolutely meaningless.  I truly hope that Senator Lincoln recognizes this and has the spine to stand up to idiotic Republican attacks.

2) For the AR-GOP, the only two types of people that exist are “Arkansas conservatives” and “Washington liberals.”  That’s why the AR-GOP is so successful.  Need I remind you that Arkansas’ Congressional delegation includes only one Republican and every single statewide Constitutional officer is a Democrat.  Further, the 35-member Arkansas state Senate consists of 27 Democrats and only 8 Republicans; and, the 100-member Arkansas state House of Representatives consists of 71 Democrats and only 28 Republicans (and 1 Green).  Aside from the Presidential election, these are partisan electoral leanings you’d more likely see in Rhode Island than in the South.  Yet Karl Rove protege Tim Griffin wants to turn the race into a political caricature about “Arkansas conservatives” vs. “Washington liberals.”  And Republicans expect Senator Lincoln to quake at their threats.  Once again, that’s why the AR-GOP is so successful.

I’ll close with a reiteration of sentiments given above.  Note to Senator Lincoln: Republicans will attack you as “out of touch” or as a supporter of “runaway Washington spending” no matter how you vote.  Even if you vote the way Republicans want you to every single time, Republicans will attack you.  The more you cave to their attacks, the more credence you give their attacks.  If you dive to the right in order to deflect their attacks, it won’t work because they’ll keep attacking no matter what.  The best way to keep your job for another six years is to do your job.  Look out for the best interests of Arkansas’ families and workers, and don’t give a second thought to the toothless, empty bullying of Republicans.