The Tolbert Report

The Democratic Primary between Sen. Blanche Lincoln and Lieutenant Governor Bill Halter continues to go back and forth today on the issue of unions. It started with Lincoln for Senate issuing the following statement on Friday…

“Typically, Bill doesn’t have the courage to attack Senator Lincoln under his own name,” said Steve Patterson, Lincoln for Senate Campaign Manager. “He allows a front group formed a few days ago by national labor unions to do his dirty work. When the ad states that Senator Lincoln is ‘not for us,’ it is true that Senator Lincoln answers to Arkansas, not to the national labor unions.

“Arkansans aren’t going to be fooled. While Bill postures against special interests, he strikes a shady deal with some of the most powerful special interests in Washington who agreed to use workers’ dues to repay his outstanding debt from his last campaign, and carry out his attacks on Senator Lincoln.” (Full release on the jump.)

Halter for Senate fires right back saying that Lincoln was being “untruthful” in her statement.

“Blanche Lincoln is once again not being truthful with Arkansans. Lieutenant Governor Bill Halter nor his campaign had any knowledge of this ad and, in fact, it would have been illegal for our campaign to have had knowledge,” said Bud Jackson, Halter for Senate Campaign Manager. “Lincoln has also once again falsely asserted that a union has retired the lieutenant governor’s previous campaign debt. Public records reflect that this assertion is a lie and that a debt remains. Since Blanche Lincoln feels so strongly that the working men and women of Arkansas should not be allowed to contribute to the political process, we hereby challenge her to return the more than $500,000 in contributions she has taken from unions for over a decade. It is quite telling that she only complains about union money when she is no longer receiving it along with the support of the working men and women they represent. (Full release on the jump.)

Lincoln for Senate responded today to the Halter for Senate response saying who’s lying?

“This isn’t a case of he said, she said,” Patterson said. “The evidence shows that he cut a deal with a national labor union and Bill’s own spokesman acknowledged it.” (Full release on the jump.)

So let me cut through the spin and see what we know. The fact is that the Service Employees International Union PAC made a contribution of $6,000 on December 21, 2009 to help retire $444,189.33 of debt Bill Halter owed for his 2006 lieutenant governor campaign. On the one hand, this was only about 1.3% of his outstanding debt but on the other hand it was as much as they were legally allowed to give. At the time Jon Youngdahl, the director of the SEIU PAC, told the AP this was because of Halter “bright political future.”

Did they help him with his debt to try to get him to run for the U.S. Senate against Lincoln? I think that is a safe assumption. But it was not an amount anywhere close to the nearly half million in total debt Halter owned. As usual, the truth is somewhere in the middle.

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The Arkansas Federation of College Republicans met in Little Rock today for their annually convention and grew a crowd of around 50 college students. The heard from Republican candidates for just about every statewide office including most all the U.S. Senate and Congressional candidates. After hearing from them, they cast their ballots for their preferences.

Curtis Coleman narrowly won the race for U.S. Senate with State Sen. Gilbert Baker coming in a close second and Congressman John Boozman in third. If you recall, Conrad Reynolds won the CR straw poll back in the fall but failed to garner much support this time around.

Here are the results of the Congressional Races…

First District – Rick Crawford
Second District – Tim Griffin
Third District – State Sen. Cecile Bledsoe
Fourth District – Beth Anne Rankin

If listening to me on the radio is your idea of an exciting weekend, then you are in for a weekend to remember (and also you probably need a bit more excitement in your life.)

This afternoon I will be on the Dave Elswick Show on KARN (102.9 FM) during the 5:00 hour talking with Dave about my new venture with Blake Rutherford and Roby Brock – The Arkansas Election Line.

And then on Sunday morning from 7:00 am to 9:00 am, I will be on Rutherford’s Arkansas Sunday Edition on The Buzz (103.7 FM) hanging out with other cool cats of the Arkansas political blogosphere – Lance Turner and David Kinkade. Remember to set your radio dial and turn your clock back forward on Saturday night. You will not want to miss a minute of the excitement.

A lot of attention is given to the political ratings of the Cook Political Report and CQPolitics. Both groups do a good job on the national level but may not always have the same perspective as those of us on the ground.

This is why the Tolbert Report is teaming up with Blake’s Think Tank and Talk Business to bring you ratings and analysis on the political races in Arkansas. By working together, we are able to bring insight from a variety of perspectives to form a conscience rating for the races you care about. We are calling this rating “The Arkansas Election Line.”

Starting next week, we will roll out ratings for the five federal races in the state beginning with the U.S. Senate race followed by each of the four Congressional races. The next week we will tackle the statewide constitutional races beginning with campaign for governor.

After that, we will bring you ratings and analysis on some of the hottest state legislative races around Arkansas. Having these races rated will be something unique for Arkansas and I hope you will enjoy it.

Charlie Frago with the Arkansas Democrat Gazette (subscription required) has an interesting look at the First Congressional Race in east Arkansas. But one item in the article caught my attention when discussing Republican candidate Rick Crawford…

Crawford, 44, who owns an agricultural radio network, touts his war chest more than $200,000 raised so far – and organizational strength. He said he has lined up the support of party county chairmen across the district.

Support of Republican Party County Chairmen? My understanding was that was frowned on in a primary and Crawford currently has to face Republican Princella Smith before he is the nominee. I asked Jonah Shumate, campaign manager for Crawford for Congress, about this and he attempted to clear up the confusion.

“The context of that statement was made in regards to starting the campaign early and going to First District GOP Committees to garner support for Rick’s Congressional run,” said Shumate. “And, that support was going to come from grass-roots supporters not the direct endorsement or support of County Chairman. Rick has not asked any County Chairman to support him directly or endorse him because GOP Party Rules prohibit just that.”

Aaron Blake with The Hill has an interesting story today on the Democratic candidate’s lack of interesting in discussing health care. He notes particularly State Sen. Joyce Elliot and House Speaker Robbie Wills who are squaring off in the Second Congressional Disctrict.

The only candidate to say unequivocally that he would support the Senate bill, which could be voted on in the House next week, is a primary-care physician running to face Rep. Jim Gerlach (R-Pa.).

Dr. Manan Trivedi said it’s important to get the ball rolling on reconciliation.  “The answer is yes,” he said flatly.

That was about as direct as the answers got — though another Democratic candidate, Arkansas state Sen. Joyce Elliott, said she was “inclined” to support the bill.

The campaigns of Trivedi’s and Elliott’s primary opponents — businessman Doug Pike and Arkansas state Rep. Robbie Wills, respectively — did not respond to multiple requests for comment over the course of the week.

“I most definitely think that we need to just bite the bullet and get with this process to get some kind of healthcare legislation in place,” said Elliott, who is running for the seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Vic Snyder (D-Ark.).

Elliott and others cited the unsettled nature of the bill for their deferred judgment.

Elliott had also told me in a previous interview that she would vote for the bill. “I prefer a single payer option but I am not tied to that,” Elliott said. “I recognize politics is an art and I can’t just do it by science.”

Wills previously said that he would not support the House version on the health care bill due to concerns over the cost to the state of Arkansas. I have not heard him change this position with the latest version being debated but he did tell me that he would not repeal the bill if it did pass. “Should the current house health care bill become law, I would not vote for repeal,” said Wills.

The Arkansas Young Republican just put out word that they will be hosting a U.S. Senate debate in Little Rock next Tuesday, March 16 at 6:30 pm in Little Rock at the UALR Law School. KATV Channel 7 will be moderating the debate and will be live streaming on their website.

Full AYR announcement on the jump.

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Earlier this week, Chad Causey called for a debate in the Fist Congressional District.  Now the debate fever has spread the central Arkansas.  Democratic candidate David Boling has thrown down the challenge to his primary opponents for a series of debates.

“The people of the Second District will be electing a new congressman in November and they deserve to know where each candidate stands on issues important to them. A series of debates will be a great chance for citizens to know which candidate has the ideas, experience and judgment to best represent them in Congress,” Boling said.

In other words, It’s on! Full release on the jump.

UPDATE -  John Adams says bring it on in cyberspace…

“I gladly accept the call for debates and encourage the other candidates to do so as well,” said Adams on his website. ”I welcome the opportunity to share my ideas on issues important to Central Arkansans like healthcare and tax reform. People want to hear practical solutions for real-life problems. I want all citizens to have an opportunity to talk to me and ask their questions, so I strongly encourage having an open forum where citizens submit questions in person and via twitter, facebook and youtube. I look forward to debating these important issues.”

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In case you missed it, there has been a bit of back and forth between Republican Third District Congressional Candidates Steve Womack and Gunner DeLay over a wellness center in Rogers. It all started last Wednesday (March 3) when Womack put out a press release blasting Obama’s health care proposal. In that release, Womack pledged “to work to establish a national program to partner with local communities for the construction of regional wellness centers, like the one in Rogers, so that more Arkansans can enjoy the life changing benefits of Adult Wellness Centers.”

Gunner DeLay put out a press release calling the pledge a “boondoggle” saying “if Womack followed through on his proposal it would cost taxpayers billions of dollars. If he is seriously believes that every American should have access to these kinds of regional work-out facilities he will have to substantially increase spending by both federal and local governments.”

“It’s a bit early in the game still, but today’s false attacks were, unfortunately, not unexpected,” shot back Womack. “I presume as a member of Congress Mr. DeLay would work to end “boondoggles.” To the extent he believes the Wellness Center is one of them, I know the Center’s members would be eager to “visit” with him about any of his plans to try and shut the Center down. Regardless, the people of the 3rd District can count on me to fight for the Wellness Center and others like it.”

DeLay said that a tour of the wellness center sounded good to him. “If someone is proposing a massive increase in federal government spending I think the taxpayers of the 3rd District are entitled to know how their money will be spent. That is why we have extended the invitation to tour the facility to the other candidates in this race, as well as the media,” said DeLay in accepting the invitation.

The much hyped tour finally took place yesterday. ““I think Mr. DeLay’s visit was educational,” said Womack. “First, we learned why the Wellness Center has been nationally recognized as one of the finest facilities of its kind in the country. We heard first hand of the literally life changing benefits the Center has offered many citizens. Second, Mr. DeLay learned more about my proposals.”

“I’m sure Mr. Delay would never intentionally misstate my position for political gain. But I have never said that Wellness Centers should be forced on communities as ‘unfunded mandates.’ It may have looked good in Mr. DeLay’s press release, but it wasn’t true. My idea is that federal, state and local governments should be able to voluntarily join with private sources to build these highly successful wellness centers on a regional basis,” continued Womack. “Third, while Mr. Delay offers only rhetoric about fiscal responsibility, I have a record. As Mayor, I ended deficit spending and balanced the budget without raising taxes. Record beats rhetoric every time.”

Also, on hand was Kurt Maddox who is also running for Congress. “I appreciated being a part of Mayor Womack’s tour of the RogersWellness Center and can clearly see the positive impact of such a facility,” said Maddox. “I view this debate as not about the center’s glowing reviews, but about the role of the federal government. The message I hear loud and clear from the vast majority of Arkansans is that our national government is trying to do too much.”

Got all that?  Don’t worry.  With 8 Republican candidates in this race, I am sure more to come.

Lieutenant Governor Bill Halter is taking his campaign for U.S. Senate to the people in a series of town halls that he will be conducting. The first one is tonight at the University of Pine Bluff at 6:00. He will take questions from the audience and discuss “how to fight special interests that are not on the side of Arkansas’s working families.”

He has pledged to hold a town hall in all 75 counties in Arkansas each year if elected to the Senate. Interesting, idea, although it is not new. Republican Curtis Coleman proposed the exact same thing back in August. Perhaps, Halter and Coleman could save some money by car pooling to these events, provided they both have the proper shots and a visa.