By John Lyon
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., and Democratic challenger Lt. Gov. Bill Halter unveiled their campaigns’ first television ads this week and traded barbs today over their content.
In Lincoln’s television spot she tells the viewer, “I want to show you what it’s like in Washington these days,” and the image cuts from Lincoln to children hitting each other with soft bats, then grabbing at falling dollars.
Lincoln says she voted against giving more money to Wall Street, against the auto company bailout, against the public option health care plan and against a cap-and-trade bill that she says would have raised energy costs on Arkansans.
“None of those were right for Arkansas. Some in my party didn’t like it very much, but I approved this message because I don’t answer to my party. I answer to Arkansas,” Lincoln says in the ad.
Halter’s ad, shot on a football field and featuring brief appearances by Halter’s former high school football coach, shows Halter holding a football and talking about his successful push for a state lottery to fund college scholarships.
Halter says he took his lottery proposal to the people after “insiders” said no to it, a reference to the fact that the state Legislature rejected the proposal before Halter led a successful drive to place it on the November 2008 general election ballot.
“Now I’m running for the Senate to take on Washington’s special interests. With your help, we can,” Halter says in the ad.
Halter’s campaign issued a statement today claiming Lincoln’s ad is misleading. Though Lincoln talks in the ad about voting against giving money to Wall Street, she voted for the Troubled Asset Relief Fund, or TARP, a “massive no-strings attached bailout for Wall Street,” Halter’s campaign noted.
“The kids are cute. It’s a shame she’s using them to hide her record,” said Bud Jackson, spokesman for Halter’s campaign.
Jackson also said Lincoln has received more than $1 million “from the exact special interests she claims to be saying no to. Taking their money and claiming to fight for average Arkansans just doesn’t wash.”
Lincoln’s campaign responded with a statement accusing the Halter camp of being misleading.
“Sen. Lincoln has a voting record that is open to inspection, so there is nothing to hide here,” said the senator’s campaign manager, Steve Patterson. “After much of the first half of TARP bailout funds were used for executive bonuses and the program failed to provide relief to families and small businesses, she said no to the second half of the bailout. She clearly voted against giving more money to Wall Street.
“If we want to talk about misleading advertising, we might look at Bill’s first ad,” Patterson said. “It puts a football in his hands and highlights his humble roots when, in fact, he’s a multimillionaire who somehow talked labor unions into paying off a half-million-dollar campaign debt to himself with the union dues of their members so he can run for higher office.”
The Service Employees International Union helped Halter repay an outstanding debt from his 2006 campaign for lieutenant governor. Several unions and the liberal grassroots group MoveOn.org this week have pledged more than $3 million to Halter’s campaign, greatly boosting his ability to compete with Lincoln, who had $5 million in campaign cash at the end of December.
Halter has defended his union support, saying unions represent ordinary working men and women.
