Adding Up Halter's Sudden Silence
I have been trying to put the pieces together on Lt. Governor Bill Halter's sudden silence on jumping in the Senate primary as a challenger to Senator Blanche Lincoln. Lincoln is in trouble, and Halter had talked of jumping in. My theory is that the Democrats operate more like a cult. They get messages from on high and they dare not step out of line. The Republican party is wide-open, witness the large herd of Republicans who think that they ought to be the one to replace Lincoln. The party may have wanted a couple of those guys to run for other things, but they don't care what the party hierarchy thinks! The GOP has less to threaten them with and less to bribe them with than do the Democrats in this state.I think Halter got read the riot act. He was told not to weaken Blanche with a primary challenge. The interests who find her useful are going to rally around their dependable tool. It was not all stick for Halter. The SEIU agreed to pay off his campaign debt for Lt. Governor. My feeling is that this was part of his price for staying out. Who knows what other conditions there might be. Bob Johnson and his talk of jumping in? My theory is that this was also to let Halter know that they were not going to let anybody challenge Lincoln, and if someone did replace her as the nominee, it would not be Bill Halter.
This is not reporting, it is speculating, but that does not make it wrong.
posted by Mark Moore (Moderator) at Sunday, January 03, 2010
3 Comments:
And what of Drew Pritt-- the man who files only his finger nails?
He switched from the US Senate race to Lt Gov. Were the Dems afraid that even Drew might've beaten Lincoln had he stayed in that race?
He would not have beaten her, but he could have damaged her like a fly in the ointment. He could have pounded her for her duplicity and give example after example of it. He could have embarrassed her by exceeding expectations.
Likely he was also talked to, and told he would get more help if he took his attacks to Halter. Maybe he will get enough help to get on the ballot this time. There are Democrats who don't like Halter, but most of them are to the right of him, not the left.
If the Grand-poobah Dems did tell Halter (and perhaps others) to stay out of the race in order to protect Lincoln - they may be shooting themselves in the foot, b/c it's my belief Lincoln is more vulnerable in the fall than another Democrat. If Halter, Johnson or anyone else beat Lincoln in a primary, whoever emerges victorious would be tougher to beat in the general election than Lincoln, in my view.
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