CWA Members Help Push Arkansas Senate Race to Run-Off

Little Rock, Ark.-- Members of the Communications Workers of America worked hard on the Senate primary election in Arkansas that now goes to a run-off election between Lt. Governor Bill Halter and incumbent Senator Blanche Lincoln.

CWA members in Arkansas are excited about Halter's campaign, said Mike Koller, president of the Arkansas Council of CWA Unions. "The fact is, CWA members in Arkansas gave up on Blanche Lincoln because she gave up on us, especially when she decided that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Big Business lobbyists were her real constituents, not the working men and women who sent her to Washington," Koller said.

Lincoln has moved farther away from the issues that middle class and working families care about, and has shown her true colors by backing a new tax cut for families that earn above $10 million, her refusal to support workers' rights, her support for taxing workers' health care and other stands that are just wrong for ordinary working families, Koller said.

The nine CWA and IUE-CWA locals in the state plus union retiree groups mobilized early to support Bill Halter. More than 17,000 CWA member-to-member contacts were made, including worksite leafleting and phone calls.

Separately, CWA's independent campaign produced the following results:

• Some 45,632 telephone calls were generated, resulting in 34,600 conversations on the issues.
• Canvassers knocked on 47,716 doors and in 6,270 hours of canvassing, held another 17,886 conversations with Arkansans about who would do the best job in representing working and middle class families in Washington.
• CWA also produced television ads and radio commercials that raised the campaign's important issues.