The Arkansas Senate Democratic primary runoff will be a sprint to June 8, with Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) and her primary challenger Bill Halter having to spend a lot of money in the next two and a half weeks. So how much do they have?
Janine Parry, a political science professor at the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville, told TPMDC that for the runoff, the campaigns could potentially have to spend “probably close to as much as they spent already.”
As of the most recent pre-primary Federal Election Commission reports, covering the period up to April 28, three weeks before the primary, Lincoln had spent 4,808,505, and Halter had spent $2,081,323.
Outside money will also be coming in, as well. AFSCME, the powerful public employees union that opposes Lincoln, is going to dump $1.4 million into race. And the SEIU health care workers union is already running an ad against Lincoln, as well.
The pre-primary reports show that Halter had $558,147 in cash on hand, with $73,143 debt. Lincoln had $3,161,126 on hand, with no debt. When asked by TPMDC, neither campaign had current fundraising information immediately available.
An FEC spokesperson told us that the next reports are due May 27, and will cover activity from April 29 through May 19 — at which point we’ll then have an up-to-date picture of how the campaigns began the runoff season.
The TPM Poll Average for this race gives Lincoln a bare lead of 45.2%-45.1%.
