Bill Halter won in classic debate terms in today’s final senatorial debate at the Statehouse Convention Center He scored point after point with specific attacks on Sen. Blanche Lincoln’s voting record, her negative ad campaign and her advocacy for an estate tax cut for families worth more than $10 million at a time when the middle class is hurting.

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Lincoln’s campaign distributed a news release immediately after conclusion saying she’d won, in part for standing up to the labor bosses. Some bosses. Dozens of working men and women waved signs and wore stickers for Halter outside the hall. It took a hurryup call for the Lincoln campaign to muster a few counter-demonstrators.

Halter: Change vs. more of the same.

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Lincoln: I’ll fight for Arkansas.

D.C. Morrison: Less government, lower taxes. (Except he gave a simple and rousing defense of the estate tax, too.)

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BELATED PS: Lincoln was sharpest in defense of her legislation to regulate derivatives. She explained a hard subject clearly and earnestly. If it’s a cynical political ploy, it hasn’t helped her much. It just might be that she was sincerely motivated.

More on the jump from Gerard Matthews.

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