Add a primary challenge to Sen. Blanche Lincoln's growing list of political problems.
Arkansas Lt. Governor Bill Halter announced Monday morning that he's launching a Democratic primary challenge to Lincoln, who was already facing a tough re-election battle this year.
"Washington is broken. Bailing out Wall Street, with no strings attached while middle class Arkansas tax payers with the bill. Protecting insurance company profits instead of patients and lowering health costs. Gridlock, bickering and partisan games while unemployment is at a 25 year high. Enough is enough. It is past time to put more Arkansas values in Washington," said Halter in an anti-incumbent message in a video posted on his Web site.
Four progressive organizations, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Democracy for America, MoveOn.org, and Daily Kos, released an e-mail pledging to raise half a million dollars over the next week for Halter, who worked in President Bill Clinton's administration. Halter is expected to formally announce his primary bid Tuesday when he files papers of candidacy at the state capitol in Little Rock.
Lincoln is one of the Democratic politicians that has been urt politically by Obamacare, on of the sacrificial lambs, to which Nancy Pelosi has now said, more should become in the name of Obamacare.
Lawmakers sometimes must enact policies that, even if unpopular at the moment, will help the public, Pelosi said in an interview being broadcast Sunday the ABC News program "This Week."
"We're not here just to self-perpetuate our service in Congress," she said. "We're here to do the job for the American people."
Rasmussen highlights Lincolns problems before Halter announced he will run against Lincoln in the Democratic primary:
For incumbent Democratic Senator Blanche Lambert Lincoln, the opponents are interchangeable at this point in her bid for reelection in Arkansas. New Rasmussen Reports polling in the state finds her stuck in the mid-30s against any of five Republican opponents.
Her GOP rivals, including Congressman John Boozman who is expected to enter the race on Saturday, all earn roughly 50% of the vote against the two-term Democrat.
But worse for Lincoln in the latest survey is that her numbers continue to fall. In September and December, her support was between 39% and 41% in these match-ups. Last month, it slipped to 38% or 39% support against any of four Republicans. Now, her support ranges from 33% to 36%.
One of the main reasons for Lincoln's self-inflicted problems:
Lincoln was clearly hurt in previous surveys by her key role in advancing for debate in the Senate the national health care plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats. But she has since been more critical of the plan which now appears to have run aground in Congress following the upset GOP Senate win in Massachusetts earlier this month. Most Arkansas voters have been strongly opposed to the plan for months.
The harder the Democrats push on Obamacare, as is, the more sacrificial lambs we will see come November.
Pelosi, Reid and Obama may just hand Congress and quite possibly the Senate right over to the Republicans at the rate they are going.
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