Marathon Pundit: Arkansas Senate race: Card check and easy money

For the last three years the so-called Employee Free Choice Act has been the Holy Grail of legislation for organized labor. Among other things, it will strip workers the right to a secret ballot when the they are presented with the choice to join a union. Instead, a slipshod petition system known as card check would take its place.

Do you want a union goon to force you to sign?

Next month Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) faces Lieutenant Governor Bill Halter in a runoff election to determine the Democratic nominee for the November election.

Card check is about as popular in Arkansas as broken glass on a swimming pool deck. Lincoln opposes it. Halter is not saying where he stands, but he's the choice of labor in the race. That makes me wonder...

Lincoln is asking Halter to declare his stand, as the Arkansas Times reports:

U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln today said she is prepared to meet Bill Halter for a fourth debate as soon as he tells Arkansas voters where he stands on card check legislation.

"My stand on this legislation is the reason D.C. unions are in Arkansas spending nearly $10 million attacking me and misrepresenting my record," Lincoln said. "Arkansans know my record, and they deserve to know where Bill stands. If we are going to debate the issues, we both have to be willing to take a stand on the issues."

Up till now, Halter's cash infusion has been easy money. In an editorial, the The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette says why:

There are times when Bill (Easy Money) Halter sounds very much like a carnival barker. Yet he is remarkably coy on the subject of how he'd vote on the card check system that the unions have been pushing as a substitute for the secret ballot when it comes to organizing the country's workplaces. It's no secret he's in Big Labor's pocket; just look at his list of campaign contributions. But he can't afford to admit it. Not yet. Not till the election is over.