http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/2010/05/new_labor_ad_blasts_blanche_li.htmlLabor ad blasts Blanche Lincoln all over the place
Greg Sargent
A brutal new ad targeting Blanche Lincoln:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FX_xSjxElNc&feature=player_embeddedIt can't be overstated how huge a victory knocking off Lincoln would be for organized labor, and now one of the major unions is up with its first spot of the runoff, a very aggressive ad blasting Lincoln on multiple fronts.
The new minute-long spot, from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, is backed by an $855,000 buy, an official says, underscoring how heavily invested labor is in taking her down. It throws a whole fusillade of charges at Lincoln, even ridiculing her recent election-day snafu, in which her campaign forgot she'd requested an absentee ballot for herself:
The ad will be running all the way through June 7th, the day before Lincoln faces Bill Halter in the runoff, according to Ricky Feller, who oversees AFSCME's advertising in Arkansas. It represents the lion's share of the $1.4 million the union has pledged to spend on the runoff.
"This one of our largest shots," Feller tells me.
Labor's heavy investment in ads attacking Lincoln have allowed Halter to simultaneously take the high road: His first spot of the runoff is an overwhelmingly positive one. Such ads run the risk of helping Lincoln paint Halter as a tool of outside groups.
But labor clearly sees no need for caution, and from now until election day will throw everything it's got at Lincoln -- with a vengeance.