Senator Blanche Lincoln has made it clear where she stands. Over the past few weeks, she has turned her back on Wal-Mart workers, and stood up to fight for the Walton Family.

Just one month ago, on March 14th, Vice President and prominent Employee Free Choice Act supporter Joe Biden stood hand in hand with Senator Blanche Lincoln and praised her hard work in Arkansas and Washington. Biden made the trip to help Lincoln raise $800,000 for her 2010 reelection campaign, but also to convince her to support the bill. What a difference a month makes.

On April 6th, Lincoln finally betrayed Wal-Mart workers. While saying out of one corner of her mouth that she “consider[ed] both the labor and the business communities” to be her friends, she unequivocally stated she could not support Employee Free Choice in its current form.

But Lincoln was hardly done cowing to the Walton Family. Last week Lincoln took a step that shows where her loyalty truly lies: she partnered with Republicans and called for increasing the exemption on the Estate Tax from $5 to $10 million, which would stand to help the extremely wealthy more cheaply pass inheritance to their family. We can think of a lot of Wal-Mart executives and Walton Family members who are in the business of passing along millions in inheritance, but we sure can’t think of any workers who are in that situation.

And while all workers might not donate thousands to her campaign like the Waltons do, there will surely be a lot more of them to cast ballots next November.

One might say that Lincoln is merely repaying some of her prime donors: the Waltons as individuals together donated about $6,000 in 2008 to her election fund.

It’s not for ‘gazillionaires’ [Arkansas News]

U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln said I knew better than that.

I’d merely wondered whether she pushed a reduction in estate taxes to save millions for her richest constituents, the Arkansas Waltons, with whom she’s long been tight.

These “gazillionaires,” as she called them, don’t give a hoot about a marginal reduction in inheritance taxes, she argued. She said they’ve already attended to orderly reduction and protection of their inheritances with expert estate planning.

Indeed, an advocacy group that the Waltons help finance has fought to eliminate estates taxes, not reduce them.

Read the rest of this story ...

It’s been no secret that targets numbers one and two for Wal-Mart in the EFCA lobbying battle have been Arkansas’ Democratic Senators Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor. Disclosure laws make it difficult to determine the exact ways that Wal-Mart lobbyists have courted the Senators, but it’s safe to say that the pressure levied on the two has been intense.

Now it’s clear that Wal-Mart has taken a shrewd new path: hiring former staffers (pictured at right) to try and convince their old bosses and co-workers to vote for Wal-Mart, and against workers. 

The Wall Street Journal reported this morning that one of Blanche Lincoln’s former staffers has been hired by Wal-Mart to lobby against EFCA:

In Arkansas, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which is bitterly opposed to the bill, has hired a Democratic lobbyist—and former staffer of Sen. Blanche Lincoln—to help defeat the bill.

The staffer in question is Kelly Bingel, who worked for years in Blanche Lincoln’s office as a Legislative Director and then Chief Of Staff. Several years ago, she was hired by the lobbying firm Mehlman Vogel Castagnetti, Inc., who now have her working for Wal-Mart against Employee Free Choice. (It’s probably pretty intimidating when your old boss shows up to tell you you better vote with Wal-Mart, no?). A snapshot of the lobbying filing is here.

Our research shows a staffer for Mark Pryor has gone down the same regrettable path. Longtime Pryor staffer Walter Pryor (no relation) has been hired by the Podesta Group to lobby for...wait for it....Wal-Mart on EFCA.

A snapshot of Pryor’s lobbying filing is here. This one is doubly bizarre - because he listed on the filings as an aide for Senator Pryor. Likely that’s a mistake - because legislative aides are most certainly not allowed to lobby. 

We’ll keep you updated as more information rolls in. In the meantime, it’s up to all of us to convince Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor to vote with workers, not Wal-Mart - even if it means saying no to old friends.

Good news for Wal-Mart workers today.

After a few months of other issues taking top priority, most notably the economy and the economic stimulus package, President Obama reminded us that he still plans to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. The Wall Street Journal reports:

President Barack Obama told AFL-CIO union leaders Tuesday in a videotaped address that the controversial Employee Free Choice Act will pass, signaling his full backing for legislation that makes union organizing easier.

“We will pass the Employee Free Choice Act,” President Obama told more than 100 top labor officials in a closed-door meeting at the labor federation’s winter gathering in Miami, according to people at the meeting.

There is no telling when exactly the bill will be introduced in Congress, but when it is it should pass the House vote easily. The concern is the Senate. If the Democrats can rally full support in the Senate they should have 59 votes - assuming Al Franken is confirmed and voting. All that leaves is one Republican to vote for EFCA to pass the bill. The most talked-about candidate is Pennsylvania’s generally-pro-labor Arlen Specter, but other moderates like Maine’s Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins are in the mix as well.

And there’s also the concern that one or more Democratic Senators are wavering on their support for Employee Free Choice under heavy influence from the strong and well-funded corporate lobby by Wal-Mart and other corporate interests. The prime suspects are - big surprise - Arkansas’ two Democratic Senators Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor.

Arkansas Business writes more today about the bind Blanche Lincoln finds herself in. She’s undoubtedly receiving suffocating pressure from the Walton Family and the Arkansas business lobby to oppose EFCA - but she’s also up for re-election in 2010, and needs to support of big name Democrats. The netroots as well, likely won’t be friendly to any Democrat who turns tail on Employee Free Choice.

We’ll keep you posted.