Lincoln, Who Gets A Large Amount Of Corporate Cash, Complains About ‘Other People’ Funding Her Opponent

By Zaid Jilani

On Tuesday, Arkansas voters will go to the polls to nominate a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate. The race is expected to be close, with incumbent senator Blanche Lincoln facing a tough challenge from former Arkansas Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, who is mounting a populist campaign against Lincoln, claiming she is too close to big corporations.

Today, on CNN’s State of the Union, host Candy Crowley asked Lincoln about how she felt her campaign was going. The incumbent senator said that she has been traveling all over the state to campaign, while Halter has been allowing “other people fund his campaign and do his dirty work”

LINCOLN: I’ve spent the last oh gosh the last week on our countdown to victory tour in 20, 25 county courthouses across the state. Bill hasn’t been doing that, he’s been letting other people fund his campaign and do his dirty work and I’ve been out there with the people.

Watch it:

While it is true that Halter has received support from outside groups, such as the AFL-CIO labor union, it should be noted that during the 2009-2010 campaign cycle, 93 percent of his funds come from individual contributions, and only 5 percent come from PACs and other interest groups.

And while Lincoln boasts of being “out there with the people,” a review of her campaign contributions shows that she has received far more money from PACs, corporate front groups, and other outside interest organizations than Halter has. During the 2009-2010 campaign cycle, 38 percent of Lincoln’s funding has come from PACs. Here’s a short list of some of the “other people” funding her campaign:

- $9,000 from insurance giant Aetna Inc. - $7,000 from petroleum company Anadarko - $6,000 from drug corporation Bayer - $2,000 from Bechtel corporation - $5,500 from insurance company Blue Cross Blue Shield - $5,000 from defense contractor Boeing - $5,000 from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce - $5,000 from Charles Schwab brokerage house - $10,000 from oil giant Chevron - $6,000 from telecommunications corporation Comcast - $5,000 from oil company ExxonMobil - $6,500 from investment bank Goldman Sachs - $8,000 from retailer Home Depot - $6,500 from investment bank JP Morgan Chase - $7,000 from defense contractor Lockheed Martin - $5,000 from oil industry giant Occidental Petroleum - $8,000 from retailer Wal-Mart

If Lincoln is going to criticize her opponent for receiving funds from outside groups, she should be upfront about her own as well.

Update Lincoln took $4,000 from BP in the 2009-2010 campaign cycle alone.

I don’t answer to my party,’ Democratic senator brags in ad

By Sahil Kapur

Lincoln touts opposition to public option, day after liberals raise million for primary foe

A conservative Democratic senator may have angered more than just the progressive base with her new ad. She could be drawing ire from her party's entire establishment after ripping its legislative priorities.

Facing challengers from the left and the right in her re-election bid this year, Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) boasts in the spot about her refusal to support the public health insurance option and climate change legislation.

Portraying Congress as a group of children fighting and blithely tossing around money, she says, "This is why I voted against giving more money to Wall Street, against the auto company bailout, against the public option health care plan, and against the cap and trade bill that would have raised energy costs on Arkansans."

Lincoln was one of a handful of Senate Democrats whose refusal to back the public option -- which progressives strongly champion and polls show a majority of Americans support -- ended up scuttling the provision soon before the bill's passage in December

The House of Representatives passed cap and trade legislation last summer, but the Senate has not yet taken it up, partly due to the opposition of conservative-leaning Democrats like Lincoln.

"Some in my party didn't like it very much, but I approve this message because I don't answer to my party," she said in the ad. "I answer to Arkansas."

The Senator's spokeswoman Katie Laning Niebaum told the Huffington Post's Sam Stein that the "ad will air from March 5-12 in all Arkansas media markets" and called it "a substantial buy."

The Republican Party's recent surge in the polls has Democrats worried as pundits speculate that the minority party could make significant gains, possibly even regain the majority in one or both chambers. A senator from conservative-leaning Arkansas, Lincoln is a prime GOP target and among the most vulnerable incumbents defending her seat.

FoxNews.com reported last month that the two-term senator could be facing one of nine potential Republican contenders in the general election. John Boozman currently leads the pack and holds a 9 point lead against Lincoln, according to a Rasmussen survey released this week.

If the ad is any reflection, Lincoln appears more concerned about a general election battle against a Republican than being ousted in the primaries by newly-declared Democratic contender Bill Halter, a progressive.

Currently the lieutenant governor of Arkansas, Halter jumped in the race on Monday with a big splash as a slew of liberal advocacy groups immediately rallied around him. Although Lincoln holds a comfortable lead of 42-26 points over him according to a December DailyKos/Research 2000 poll, Halter's notable fundraising success suggests he might put a serious fight.

Less than a day after his announcement, a coalition including MoveOn.org and the Progressive Change Campaign managed to raise over half a million dollars for Halter's primary campaign against Lincoln, claimed DailyKos's Markos Moulitsas, who is helping organize the effort. The number reportedly jumped to over $1 million within two days.

The White House reaffirmed its support for Lincoln in the Democratic primaries on Thursday, despite her opposition to several of its policies. "The president supports Senator Lincoln," spokesman Robert Gibbs told Sam Stein in response to a question. "He believes that Senator Lincoln is serving her state well and believes she should be returned for an additional term."

Gibbs added that Obama "understands even as he's the head of the Democratic Party that not every Democrat is going to agree with him on every issue, and he's not going to agree with every other Democrat on their views on every issue."

The video is Lincoln's ad, uploaded to YouTube. Quick fact check comment: Blanche Lincoln actually answers to the health insurance industry, Wal-Mart and the other various corporate interest that sends money to her bank account.