Lincoln: ‘Win or lose, I’m a Dem’

Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) is entering her challenging primary election on Tuesday vowing to win or lose as a Democrat.

Facing a challenging primary against Arkansas Lt. Gov Bill
Halter, Lincoln is hoping to avoid the fate of Utah Sen. Robert Bennett
(R) and Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.), both of whom were recently ousted
by challenges from within their respective parties.

{mosads}While Bennett is considering a write-in candidacy, Lincoln told The
Hill she has no plans to to seek re-election as an independent
candidate.

“Oh Lord, no. Never. I’m a Democrat. Win or lose, I’ll be a Democrat,” she said during an interview in her Senate office.

Arkansas’s registration period was March 1-8. During that time, Lincoln
or Halter could have registered to run as a Democrat and an
Independent, which would have let them carry on without party
affiliation after a defeat in the primary. Both registered only as
Democrats, according to an official in the Arkansas Secretary of
State’s office.

Polls this month put Lincoln ahead by nine to 12 points. Should Lincoln
survive on Tuesday, she will be the underdog in the general election
race in the fall.

Lincoln is frustrated at elements
of her own party. Senate Democrats haven’t been as focused as they
could have been on promoting job growth and shoring up the economy, she
said, and liberal groups that are opposing her re-election are being
unrealistic.

“Just like the far right, I think the far left also believes that
you’ve got to be with them 100 percent of the time or you don’t meet
the test,” she said. “I don’t think there’s anybody that you’re going
to be with 100 percent of the time — not and be true to your
constituency. My first commitment here is to Arkansas.”

Labor unions and MoveOn.Org have teamed up to oppose Lincoln, funding
ads that take aim at her centrist politics. First elected in 1998 with
55 percent of the vote, and re-elected in 2004 with 56 percent — a year
in which President George W. Bush easily won her state — the
49-year-old senator has forged a fiercely independent voting streak.
She bucked her party several times to support Bush administration
proposals, and last fall angered liberals anew by threatening to
filibuster any healthcare reform bill that included a public option.
One of the last Democrats to support the bill itself in December, she
opposed the so-called “fix” bill in March when it was brought to a vote
using Senate reconciliation rules.

While proud of First Lady Michelle Obama’s commencement address at the
University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff last weekend — in which Obama greeted
Lincoln during her speech but didn’t mention Halter — Lincoln wouldn’t
directly say whether she will invite President Barack Obama to campaign
for her.

“You run into some problems in terms of the cost. I found that out
before,” she said. “If they come for a specific campaign event, it can
be expensive. You have to pay for their expenses.”

Laughing, Lincoln adds, “Air Force One ain’t
cheap. Neither is the Secret Service.”

Even
though she could be days away from a devastating political defeat,
Lincoln appears at ease throughout the 20-minute interview. Pressed on
the administration’s criticism of her derivatives plan, Lincoln calmly
responds that policymakers are entitled to their opinions, and then
defends her legislative proposal.

Lincoln is the first female senator to lead the Agriculture Committee,
and is clearly proud of the efforts women have made in the Senate — a
painting of Arkansas Sen. Hattie Caraway (D), the first woman ever
elected to the Senate, decorates a wall in her Dirksen Senate Office
Building suite.

Former chairmen on the committee note that Lincoln hasn’t yet been
tested with having to pass a farm bill, a notoriously tricky process
since the committee’s inner relationships are more rooted in geographic
concerns than traditional political priorities. But they say Lincoln
has asserted herself, such as launching an effort to promote child
nutrition and recently by insisting that a proposal to regulate
derivatives stay in the Senate’s financial reform bill.

Lincoln wants to require banks to spin off their derivatives
operations, arguing that the provisions stay in the bill at a
recent Democratic caucus meeting. A handful of senators defended
Lincoln, accusing Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Banking
Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) of failing to support her.

“You definitely have to stand your ground,” Lincoln said. “And I did, and I think it was respected.”

Former committee chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said the agriculture
panel is one of the more difficult to lead in the Senate, but that
Lincoln has been “outstanding.”

“It requires you to be cognizant and aware of things in other parts of
the country in a way that other committees don’t,” Harkin said. “You
have to be able to work with different factions. She’s very good at
that. She’s very savvy.”

Jennifer Duffy, a senior editor and Senate analyst at the Cook
Political Report, said the opposition to Lincoln from the left mirrors
the re-election efforts lost by centrist Sen. Lincoln Chaffee (R-R.I.)
in 2006 and narrowly won by former GOP Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) in
2004.

“It’s something that Republicans have been feeling the last couple of
elections, and now the Democrats are feeling it too,” Duffy said. “Do I
think that moderates are dead? I think they’re a bit in exile, but
something tells me that eventually the pendulum comes back to the
middle. One problem, though, is that electing more conservatives and
more liberals makes it pretty sure that nothing much gets done.”

Lincoln acknowledges that voters are frustrated at the Senate’s gridlock, but said she believes moderation will be rewarded.

“As more of us as moderates and pragmatic legislators push to get
results, I think people will see that results trump this idea that
they’ve got all the answers,” she said. “The more that you work towards
what’s right and what’s going to be productive and what’s going to
bring results, the more likely people will see the evidence of it and
will realize that we’re not going to solve the problems of this country
overnight.”

Sean J. Miller contributed to this article