Former President Bill Clinton exits a fundraiser for Democratic 2nd District congressional candidate Joyce Elliott (right) in Little Rock on Wednesday. (John Lyon photo)

LITTLE ROCK — Former President Bill Clinton said Wednesday that Democratic U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln can still win her tough re-election fight if Arkansans base their vote on issues instead of “anger, apathy and amnesia.”

The former Arkansas governor was in his home state to attend campaign events Wednesday in Little Rock for several Arkansas Democrats, including Lincoln, who trails Republican challenger U.S. Rep. John Boozman in most polls.

Talking to reporters, Clinton acknowledged that Arkansas is “a tough state now” for Democratic incumbents and said people are right to be angry because of the difficult economy, but he said anger is not what the election should be about.

“What the voters need to decide is, what do they want and who is most likely to give it to them in terms of action?” he said.

Clinton said Lincoln, as chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, is in a good position to deliver what Arkansans want.

“The agriculture committee chairman is not only the leader in agriculture policy but controls development funds for small towns in rural America, and she has delivered over and over and over again,” he said. “So I think if she can make it about the issues — what do we need to do, who’s most likely to do it — as opposed to anger, apathy and amnesia, I think she still can win this race.”

After attending a midday fundraiser at a downtown Little Rock restaurant for state Sen. Joyce Elliott, who is running for the 2nd District congressional seat now held by retiring Democrat Vic Snyder, Clinton told reporters he was impressed by Elliott’s work to improve education and promote economic development as a state legislator.

Polls have shown Republican candidate Tim Griffin, a former U.S. attorney, leading Elliott.

Elliott is “the only one running that’s got a record of really doing things for people, with none of the kinds of ethical problems and political abuse-of-power charges and all those other things that have come out against her opponent,” Clinton said.

Griffin has been accused of involvement in dirty tricks in Florida in 2004 as an operative for the Republican National Committee, and his appointment as U.S. attorney in Arkansas in 2006 has been called improperly political. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Ryan James, spokesman for the Griffin campaign, responded Wednesday, “If Joyce Elliott were asking to go to Congress to help President Clinton, some Arkansans might feel differently, but she would be going to help the Obama administration, and that’s why Arkansans are rejecting her campaign.”

Later Wednesday, Clinton attended a fundraiser for 1st District congressional candidate Chad Causey, who is running against Republican Rick Crawford for the seat of retiring Democrat Marion Berry, and a fundraiser for District 32 state House of Representatives candidate Carolyn Staley, who is challenging Republican state Rep. Alan Kerr’s re-election bid.

Clinton endorsed Lincoln and Causey during their Democratic primary races this spring.

On Wednesday night, Clinton spoke at an event celebrating the one-year anniversary of Lincoln’s appointment as chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee. Lincoln is the first Arkansan and the first woman to chair the committee.

“It would be a terrible mistake to squander something that I personally have waited all my life to see: Somebody who could get Arkansas its fair share and rural America its fair share of America’s economic bounty,” Clinton told the crowd.

Clinton defended Lincoln’s vote in support of the federal health care overhaul, saying she “drove the right and left crazy” by studying the bill and working to improve it.

“I didn’t agree with her on every issue, by the way,” he said. “That’s not the point. I want people thinking up there.”

Clinton defended the federal stimulus and the bank bailout, saying unemployment would be higher without them. The country was in a hole when Democrats came to power in Washington and it’s still in a hole, but “we did stop digging,” he said.

“If you don’t re-elect her (Lincoln), when her opponent is sworn into the United States Senate he’ll have one hand on the Bible and he’ll be holding a shovel in the other hand,” Clinton said.

Lincoln told the crowd it has become “very popular for both sides to be mad at Blanche.”

She urged her supporters to tell people, “Be mad at Blanche for whatever reason, but don’t lose the opportunity to use that (agriculture) committee and that independent voice to produce a pipeline of jobs and opportunities for this state.”

Patrick Creamer, a spokesman for Boozman’s campaign, said Wednesday, “President Clinton is always welcome back in Arkansas, but in the end this election is going to be decided by where Sen. Lincoln and Congressman Boozman stand with the electorate, not who they stand with on the stage.”