I studied history for a number of years, but I never could figure out something that Sherrod Brown , the left-wing Democratic Senator from Ohio, expresses with great if unearned confidence: History has “sides,” for and against, and it always supports progressives against their opponents. Speaking of the four Democratic “moderates” who oppose parts of the Reid health plan on...
Arkansas Democrat Blanche Lincoln, who remains undecided on Senate legislation, is getting pummeled from the left and right. As one of the few senators undecided on healthcare reform, Arkansas Democrat Blanche Lincoln faces a huge headache. Liberals attack her as an obstructionist, even though she cast a key vote keeping the effort alive. Republicans are lining up to run against her -- seven, so far,...
November 21, 2:00 PM Central. Democrats have hit the 60-vote number needed to move ahead on historic health care legislation, according to AP. Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln said on the Senate floor that she will vote with her party, hours before the 8 p.m. roll call. It isn’t clear as of yet what they promised her. The [...]
Has anybody heard anything about there being an election of some sort today? I'll look into it, but this is the first I've heard. In the meantime... ? AR-Sen (pdf): Talk Business Quarterly had a strange poll earlier in the year where they had a huge disparity between Blanche Lincoln's favorables (mediocre) and her re-elect (terrible), and now they're back with another poll showing pretty much the same...
U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., said Tuesday she still can't support a government-funded insurance option, a day after legislation was unveiled that would give states the choice of whether to participate in the program.
Senator Blanche Lincoln, Democrat from Arkansas, sends letter to LGBT constituent explaining that she does not support ENDA because she does not believe in "special rights". Excerpt from Lincoln's letter : Thank you for contacting me regarding the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (S. 1584) which would prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity....
Senator Mark Pryor of Arkansas is a key vote on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act . Meanwhile, Senator Pryor's cohort, Senator Blanche Lincoln, has come out against ENDA. We're at 56 likely yes votes in the Senate. Those last four are getting increasingly hard to find. Senator Pryor is not one of them, though he could be. Please call Senator Pryor today to ask for his support for S.1584. Facts...
? AR-Sen : With Blanche Lincoln already facing the vague possibility of a primary challenge from her right from Arkansas Senate President Bob Johnson, now there are rumors that she might face a primary challenge from what passes for the left in Arkansas, from Lt. Gov. Bill Halter . Halter would focus on Lincoln's health-care related foot-dragging, but apparently has a track record of threatening to...
Benenson Strategy Group (D) for DSCC (10/5-7, likely voters): Blanche Lincoln (D-inc) : 50 Gilbert Baker (R) : 37 Don't know : 13 Blanche Lincoln (D-inc) : 51 Kim Hendren (R) : 37 Don't know : 12 (MoE: ?3.7%) Polls have truly been all over the place on this race so far -- in recent months, Rasmussen found incumbent Blanche Lincoln in DOA territory, PPP found Lincoln neck-and-neck with her little-known...
Over at his Washington Post blog, Ezra Klein writes a post headlined "How the Senate Finance Committee Got Ron Wyden's Vote". He opens by noting the unlikelihood that Wyden would have emerged as the tough "get" for the chairman, Senator Max Baucus (D-MT): If you'd asked me six months ago which Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee would prove the toughest vote on health-care...
Civil rights groups are now stepping into the health care reform debate by launching a six-figure ad campaign, reports the Washington Post's Capital Briefing blog. A coalition of a dozen civil rights organizations, including the NAACP and the National Council of La Raza, are releasing a series of ads reaching out to minority communities in North Carolina, Arkansas, Louisiana and Florida. Capital Briefing...
SSP announced changes to eight race ratings recently . Since then, we've added one more race to the list (VA-Gov), and we're changing the rating once more on another (AR-Sen). Our writeups for all of these are below. Senate races : AR-Sen (Lincoln) : Safe D to Lean D When we were debating our ratings changes a few weeks ago, we decided to push the Arkansas Senate contest to Likely D. But that was then....
The NY Times writes up the role Sen. Blanche Lincoln will have in the upcoming health care bill. Of course the problem is that Lincoln is up for re-election in a red state, and despite all the evidence that people in Arkansas support a public option – she keeps voting against one. Republicans too often react [...]
First, the good news: On September 29, the Senate Finance Committee approved a $75 million funding stream for comprehensive (i.e., responsible) sex education. According to the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SEICUS) , "$50 million [...] would be geared to evidence-based, medically accurate, age-appropriate programs to educate adolescents about both abstinence...
As Streiff noted yesterday , the Senate Finance Committee considered Senator Chuck Grassley’s (R-IA) amendment on the health care legislation that would require identification to take advantage of medicaid benefits. Senator Grassley’s position, and the logical position, is that if one is not asked to show identification before taking advantage of a taxpayer funded health care program like...
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