Senate agriculture chairman has a chance at re-election

WASHINGTON — Senate Agriculture Chairman Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., unexpectedly won a runoff election for the Democratic nomination for re-election on June 10 and may have a better than expected chance at re-election this fall.

Lincoln will face Republican candidate John Boozman in the general election. Although polls have shown Boozman is ahead of Lincoln, her Agriculture chairmanship and the importance of agriculture in the state would make the general election a closer race, a prominent Arkansas political scientist said in an interview.

“Twenty-five percent of the economy is still tied to agriculture,” noted Jay Barth, a professor of politics at Hendrix College in Conway, Ark.”

But Barth said he considers Lincoln’s chairmanship “a double-edged sword” because it gives her power and helps her raise money but also reminds people how long she has been in Washington. Barth said Lincoln “is disadvant-

aged by an environment hostile to Washington, hostile to Washington and hostile to President Obama,” but he also noted that Boozman is a member of Congress rather than an outsider.

Lincoln’s greatest advantage, he said, is that “she’s run so many times” while Boozman still has to build a statewide operation.

Key issues

Agriculture provisions in the tax “extenders” bill could make votes on the final version of that bill a key test between Lincoln and Boozman.

In the last days before the runoff, Lincoln noted that the House-passed version of the tax extenders bill included a disaster package that she had developed that would be of particular benefit to Arkansas and that she already had pushed through the Senate in March. Lincoln’s disaster package would provide an estimated $1.1 billion in supplemental payments to producers who suffered crop losses in counties declared “primary” disaster areas by USDA, $300 million in assistance to specialty crop producers, $75 million in emergency loans to poultry producers, $50 million in assistance for livestock producers, $25 million in aquaculture assistance and $42 million to aid first handlers of cottonseed.

The bill also included funding to settle the black farmers’ discrimination lawsuit against USDA known as Pigford II. In addition, the bill included an extension of the biodiesel tax credit that is of interest to farmers in many states who might be Lincoln contributors in an attempt to keep her in the chairmanship.

Priorities

Boozman did not vote for the tax extenders bill.

“I am committed to supporting family farms and ensuring their survival in the most fiscally responsible manner possible,” he said. “Supporting the needs of Arkansas’ agriculture community and working to get the assistance it needs to continue thriving is a top priority which is why I sent a letter to House leadership in March requesting that supplemental direct payments, specialty crop and forage assistance and aquaculture assistance be a priority in jobs and disaster legislation. I am pleased that this was included in the most recent, House-passed version of H.R. 4213. Unfortunately, this legislation also included provisions that I could not support.”

Assuming that the Senate continues with plans to amend the House bill, each body will have to vote on the bill. A spokeswoman for Lincoln said the senator “will not make a final determination on how she will vote on the overall bill until the amendment process is complete and she can look at the final product.”

An Arkansas ag trade association executive said that the tax extenders bill had “real tangible results for the state of Arkansas” and that Boozman’s vote against it was an indication “he is voting more party line than in the interests of Arkansas. That is the opposite of what Blanche is doing. She is definitely not someone you can accuse of going straight down the party line.”

Tags: agribusiness, legislation, farm, policy