Blanche Lincoln Primary – Labor’s Last Stand?

by | Jun 6, 2010 | News

Excellent NYT story on Blanche Lincoln’s runoff election in the Democratic primary in Arkansas on Tuesday. She is in a tough battle against organized labor’s candidate Bill Halter. Some very interesting statistics and quotes:

  • Unions have knocked on 170,000 doors (3 times as many doors as there are union members in the state…)
  • Unions made 700,000 phone calls (more than 10 times as many union members…)
  • Unions sent 2.7 million pieces of mail (postage and printing costs for that much mail would easily exceed $1 million)
  • Unions spent almost $6 million on television and radio advertising.

There are still a couple of days left, so those numbers should all increase dramatically. Where is all this money and “boots on the ground” coming from. Not Arkansas. Consider my favorite quote: “We’re sending a message here,” said Larry Cohen, president of the Communications Workers of America. “Our members have had it — not just in Arkansas, they have had it across this country.” I was curious how many of these rabidly mad CWA members actually live in Arkansas and are represented by Ms. Lincoln. Turns out there are only 2,447 of them, according to the latest LM filings with the Department of Labor. Undoubtedly many of them support Ms. Lincoln. More important, those 20 Communication Workers Locals have $886,302 in total assets COMBINED. Gerald McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (380 members, $36,083 in assets in the state of Arkansas) also piled on, complaining that Ms. Lincoln supported George Bush’s tax cuts, NAFTA and opposing a windfall profits tax on oil companies. The article continues: “We go out and support these Blue Dogs all over the place,” said Mr. McEntee, the union leader. “We give them all kinds of ground support, radio support, and then they get in there and they’ve lost our phone number. For God’s sake, what’s the use of having them in there?” Unions from around the country want Blanche Lincoln to pay for her crime of (gasp!) actually representing her constituents. Voters in Arkansas need to pay close attention to these numbers and that last quote. Make no mistake – unions from outside your state think they are about to buy your Senator and send a message to any other Senator who dares to oppose them.

INK Newsletter

APPROACHABILITY MINUTE

GET OUR RETENTION TOOLKIT

PUBLICATIONS

Archives

Categories