Dem Sen. Lincoln: Primary Did Me In

How’s this as an excuse for losing a congressional election: I had to win my primary first. Welcome to the world of Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln. She says she would be even with Republican challenger Rep. John Boozman if she hadn’t faced a competitive primary race in the spring, Politico reports.

Pity the poor senator — she has to attract votes to get re-elected. She’ll likely have plenty of time to ponder what went wrong. The latest Rasmussen poll shows Boozman leading her 55 percent to 37 percent.

On Arkansas Public Radio in Little Rock Monday, Lincoln put the blame on her primary opponent Lt. Gov. Bill Halter. Asked whether she thought she would be even with Boozman now if “it weren’t for that tough primary,” Lincoln replied, “Yeah, I believe I would. When somebody spends $21 million of negative advertising against you, you’ve got to spend an awful lot of time and energy winning back people’s approval and people’s trust.”