AP: Anti-establishment tide crashes Ark. Senate race (unions spend $5 mill on Halter vs Lincoln)

The AFSCME PAC spent 1.4 million on Halter.

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20100528/D9FVMT4G0.html

May 28, 3:19 AM (ET)

By RON FOURNIER and ANDREW DeMILLO

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Heads up, tea partiers. You're not the only folks staking claim to the mantle of angry outsider.

In state after state, voters are taking out their frustrations at the political establishment - and no place reflects the depth and diversity of their ire better than Arkansas, where unions, corporate interests and several insurgent candidates hope to ride high on the mad-as-heck tide.

In the home state of former President Bill Clinton, and elsewhere, party leaders and structures are being bypassed - undermined, in some cases - by free-agent candidates who declare their independence from the political establishment while aligning themselves with special interests.

"This is an election like no other," says Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, a union-backed candidate who has forced Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln into a June 8 runoff. "The game is changing."

He should know.

Halter defied Arkansas' wait-your-turn tradition and jumped into the primary against Lincoln, a 16-year veteran of Congress who is backed by President Barack Obama, Clinton and much of the state's political establishment. That left Halter with one ally inside the Democratic family (but outside Arkansas): organized labor.

FULL story at link.

I hope Halter comes out on top in this one.

Recommended.

:shrug: This race is not about anti establishment, it is about anti Lincoln. Halter is very much for the establishment. He will be a reliable Democratic vote where Lincoln rarely was.

in a row." Can you tell that Zook is with the Chamber of Commerce?

there are barely twelve people in the entire country who can... :)