CWA Members Help Push Arkansas Senate Race to Run-Off

CWA members show support for Bill Halter outside candidates' debate.

CWAers in Arkansas worked hard on the Senate primary election and helped push that race to a run-off election between Lt. Governor Bill Halter and incumbent Senator Blanche Lincoln, set for June 8.

Mike Koller, president of the Arkansas Council of CWA Unions, said CWA members were excited about the campaign and the opportunity to send Bill Halter to the U.S. Senate. "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."

CWA and IUE-CWA locals in Arkansas, plus union retirees, mobilized early to support Halter. More than 17,000 CWA member-to-member contacts were made, through phone calls, worksite leafleting and door knocks.

CWA District 6 Vice President Andy Milburn said CWAers in Arkansas accomplished an amazing victory, and it's not over yet. "I'm proud of our members in Arkansas who said that we need to take a chance because we need a change. It's difficult to challenge an incumbent, but CWA members said that they want a Senator who will stand up for working families, and that Bill Halter is that candidate. We've sent the message that we will hold elected officials accountable."

Lincoln has shown her true colors by voting to tax workers' health care; refusing to support Employee Free Choice and workers' rights; opposing President Obama's nominee to the NLRB; preferring that bankers get a cool $87 million tax-free instead of helping students who want to go to college, and other stands that are just wrong for working families.

Separately, CWA's independent campaign:

• Generated 45,632 telephone calls and 34,600 conversations on the issues.
• Resulted in 6,270 hours of canvassing, with canvassers knocking on 47,716 doors.
• Produced televisions ads and radio commercials that raised the campaign's important issues.