| The latest Rasmussen poll from Arkansas shows Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Blanche Lincoln trailing four potential Republican challengers. Rasmussen polls tend to skew a bit towards Republican candidates, so take this with a grain of salt.
On the other hand, this poll was in the field before yesterday's Senate Finance Committee hearing on the health care bill, during which Lincoln was one of three Democrats who refused to back both public health insurance option amendments. That probably won't go over well in Arkansas, where a strong majority of voters support "creating a government-administered health insurance option that anyone can purchase to compete with private insurance plans."
Lincoln's re-election campaign will be generously financed by corporate interests; she has already pulled in a lot of money from healthcare industry. Big agribusiness will be there for her as well, and probably Wal-Mart and the Chamber of Commerce too, since Lincoln now opposes the Employee Free Choice Act (after voting for that pro-labor bill in 2007, when she knew President Bush would never sign it).
Corporate money could get Lincoln re-elected, but if the economy continues to be weak and the Democratic base is uninspired to lift a finger to help her, she could have a very tough road. MoveOn is already running ads against Lincoln.
I don't normally post here about campaigns and elections, but I thought the La Vida Locavore community would want to know that there's a very real chance the Senate Agriculture Committee will be choosing a new chair (Debbie Stabenow?) in early 2011. |
