I am pulling for Sen. Lincoln tomorrow.

Lt. Gov. Bill Halter is challenging Senator Blanche Lincoln

From The New York Times:

Lara Bergthold, a left-wing political consultant, has a word of advice for the labor unions and national liberal groups that recruited the challenger who is giving Senator Blanche Lincoln the fight of her political life: caveat emptor.

Senator Lincoln, a two-term Democrat, had been judged too conservative, and her critics found a willing alternative in Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, whom they hailed as a “true progressive.”

But Ms. Bergthold, who spent weeks in 2003 working with Mr. Halter on Gen. Wesley K. Clark’s presidential campaign, said Mr. Halter had been among the most conservative voices in the room, even pooh-poohing the importance of meeting with labor unions and other key segments of the Democratic base.

Now, Ms. Bergthold worries that the groups that have poured millions of dollars into his campaign might not know what they are getting. Compared with Mrs. Lincoln, a senator for 12 years, Mr. Halter is a political cipher, with no voting record and several chapters of his history unexamined.

“I don’t like to see him turned into a progressive darling on the national stage when I know him to be something different,” Ms. Bergthold said. “He’s a political opportunist.”

But what critics call opportunism, supporters say is simply a willingness to buck the established political order. With union firepower behind him, Mr. Halter finished only two points behind Mrs. Lincoln in the May 18 primary, forcing her into a runoff.

A successful primary challenge against such a high-ranking incumbent is highly unusual, but Mr. Halter has astutely capitalized on the discontent with Mrs. Lincoln on the part of both national groups and Arkansas voters.

[Mr. Halter says] he would most likely favor some version of a compromise bill that would make it easier to unionize.

But when he is asked about his union support, he responds that he has nothing to do with campaigning by outside groups.

He has been an extraordinarily disciplined campaigner, always on message even during lengthy interviews.