AFSCME will put $1.4 million into Arkansas runoff

[ccharles000]

The giant public workers union AFSCME will invest $1.4 million in the Arkansas Senate race, the union's president told POLITICO, a massive sum in a small state that will boost the runoff chances of Lt. Gov. Bill Halter.

The union is sending about 50 staffers to Arkansas for the race's last three weeks, with a particular focus on rallying African-American voters behind Halter, the president, Gerald McEntee, said, describing an independent expenditure campaign on a scale likely to dominate the state's airwaves.

AFSCME is one of several unions eager to punish Sen. Blanche Lincoln for her opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act, which would make organizing easier, and other stances. McEntee referred to her as "a Democrat in name only," "Bailout Blanche" and "Wal-Mart's queen."

The expenditure has, McEntee said, another goal as well: demonstrating labor's independence from the Democratic Party.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0510/AFSCME_will_put_14_million_into_Arkansas_runoff.html