Arkansans for Common Sense Ads attacking Democratic Senate hopeful Bill Halter trying to tie Halter to proposals to privatize Social Security. In response, to the attack ads Halter’s campaign has bought the group’s domain name “arkansansforcommonsense.com” brought up “Bailout Blanche Lincoln,” a site paid for by Halter’s campaign.
Bill Halter’s U.S. Senate campaign said Arkansans for Common Sense is running an ad against Halter has ties to Senator Blanche Lincoln and questioned whether federal campaign laws were broken, allegations that Lincoln’s campaign vehemently denied.
Katie Laning Niebaum, a spokeswoman for Lincoln’s campaign, said there is no connection between the ad and the senator.
“We have no knowledge, no involvement with this group. To coordinate is a violation of federal election law, which we take very seriously,” Niebaum said.
Arkansans for Common Sense ad states, “As head of Social Security, he (Halter) called for investing a share of Social Security revenues in the stock market. Call Bill Halter and tell him not to roll the dice with our retirement money.”
“These attacks are false,” Chapin said of the ad depicting Halter as a threat to Social Security. “He’s never supported privatization.”
The ad refers to a Jan. 12, 2000, Philadelphia Daily News story that reported on Halter’s comments about investing money from the Social Security trust fund in the stock market.
Mitch Berry son of Marion Berry is listed on the group’s filing papers with the secretary of state.
Halter Arkansas’ lieutenant governor and is challenging Democratic Senator Blanche Lincoln in the May 18 primary.
