NYT: Unions Vow Push to Defeat Lincoln

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/19/unions-vow-push-to-defeat-lincoln/?scp=8&sq=labor&st=cse

May 19, 2010, 12:36 pm

Organized labor says it plans to go all-out to defeat Blanche Lincoln, the Democratic senator from Arkansas, in a June 8 runoff election against Lt. Gov. Bill Halter.

“We’re certainly ready and able to spend whatever we need to spend on behalf of Halter,” said Karen Ackerman, the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s political director.

She said labor’s big push for Mr. Halter — including more than 60,000 phone calls and 200,000 leaflets distributed at work sites — helped prevent Ms. Lincoln from obtaining the 50 percent threshold needed to avoid a runoff in Tuesday’s Democratic primary.

“We look forward to the runoff,” Ms. Ackerman said in a phone briefing on Wednesday. “We’re in it to win it, and we’ll spend the next three weeks in a very aggressive, continuing campaign to turn out union voters.”

Ms. Ackerman said unions campaigned against Ms. Lincoln because she opposed the Employee Free Choice Act, a bill that would make it easier to unionize workers, and had voted against Craig Becker to serve on the National Labor Relations Board. (President Obama gave him a recess appointment.)

FULL story at link.