Sen. Lincoln will not support ‘card check’

Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) said Monday she will vote against the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), marking a major Democratic defection to the effort to pass the highly-prized union bill.

“I cannot support that bill,” Lincoln said during a speech before the Little Rock Political Animals Club, according to the Arkansas Business News. “Cannot support that bill in its current form. Cannot support and will not support moving it forward in its current form.”

The Associated Press is also reporting that Lincoln announced her opposition to the bill, which is strongly desired by organized labor.

Lincoln’s opposition would mark another major blow to the legislation, also known as “card check,” after Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) announced he would vote against cloture and passage of the legislation. Without Lincoln, a centrist Democrat, supporting the measure, proponents of the organized labor legislation would need to flip two Republican votes in order to survive a filibuster.

Lincoln faces reelection in 2010, and although she has not drawn any banner Republican opponents yet, her choice to oppose EFCA — like Specter’s — could have major political ramifications.