Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., has provided the surprise of the night by winning her primary runoff. Having failed to get more than 45 percent of the vote in the first round of the state’s primary, she looked like a goner. Instead, she has survived until November.
Her victory over Lt. Gov Bill Halter, D, suggests two things: First, this is an anti-liberal year, not just an anti-incumbent year — at least in Arkansas. Second, labor unions’ electoral clout is even weaker than that of incumbents. Despite spending $10 million to defeat Lincoln, the unions have come up empty and left her with no incentive to support them.
Lincoln is widely expected to lose this fall — in fact, there are hints that she survived because of strategic voting by Republicans who supported D.C. Morrison in the first round of the open primary. But Lincoln was the poster-child for the Left of the corporate-owned Democrat, and the Left spent every ounce of its energy trying to defeat her. Her victory provides the argument that the progressive movement will be a paper tiger in 2010.
