Conservative vs Progressive

[Riot]

This is interesting ... of course, what matters is who wins the election, not the primary.

Arkansas Senate race:

Bill Halter Running For Arkansas Senate: Progressive Democrat To Challenge Blanche Lincoln

Conservative Democrat Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), whose obstinacy during the health care reform process was so frustrating to the progressive community, is officially getting a primary challenge.

Arkansas lieutenant governor, Bill Halter, announced that he would launch a campaign to dislodge Lincoln from her Senate seat.

The race is likely to become a proxy battle for the larger debate within the Democratic Party between progressives who believe sticking to core values is the best way to win office and the self-styled pragmatists who argue that they must adopt more conservative positions when running in traditionally more conservative states.

The firm Research 2000 did a poll on this prospective primary battle back in December. And the numbers showed a fairly tough landscape for a primary challenger. Forty-two percent of respondents said they would back Lincoln in a Democratic primary. Twenty-six percent said they'd back Halter. Thirty-two percent were undecided.

UPDATE: A host of progressive groups -- including Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Moveon.org, Democracy for America and Daily Kos -- are launching a fundraising drive on Halter's behalf. The goal has been set for $500,000 to be raised in one week.

UPDATE -- 7:45 PM ET: DailyKos.com founder Markos Moulitsas says that he and several other progressive organizations, including MoveOn.org, have already met their first-week fundraising goal of $500,000 for Halter about 7 hours after Halter announced his Senate run.