Labor & Employment Law

Halter: Vote Pits Working Families Against Lincoln?s Corporate Campaign Cash

By Mike Hall

Arkansas Lt. Gov. Bill Halter (D) says the state’s working family voters can send a message to Washington when they go to the polls May 18 to choose between Halter or Sen. Blanche Lincoln in  the Democratic U.S. Senate primary. That message:

“It’s time for people in the Democratic primary to stand up and support progressive Democrats, and not to support those folks who are coming in with the biggest campaign contribution from a PAC.

This is about whether we are going fight for working men and women or whether we are going to fight for the folks who come in with a $5,000 contribution.”

Arkansas working families have endorsed Halter in the race against Lincoln, whom Halter said has received “over $1 million in campaign contributions from Wall Street and other financial institutions over the course of her career.” Speaking recently to a luncheon of retirees from Laborers (LIUNA) Local 1282, Halter asked the crowd:

You all heard of Goldman Sachs?  Sen. Lincoln has accepted $29,000 in contributions from Goldman Sachs. As soon as this broke, I asked her to give it back. She said “No.”

After Lincoln received heavy criticism for taking money from one of the biggest culprits in the economic meltdown, Halter told the retirees, “She finally gave back a little bit of their campaign contribution, but won’t give the rest back.”

Lincoln has a track record of voting to send jobs overseas via bad trade deals. Halter said his first act as a U.S. Senator would be to introduce a bill

to eliminate all the tax provisions in our code that give American companies an incentive  to move their jobs overseas and instead replace it with tax incentives to create jobs right here in Arkansas.

Click on the video to see more of Halter’s talk with the union retirees.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on May 12, 2010 (boomark / email).