Veteran Arkansas political columnist John Brummett tells his readers today that he voted for the "smarter, supremely competent, superbly qualified" candidate in the Democratic Primary for U.S. Senate. Read his column.

That would be Lieutenant Governor Bill Halter.

"... I went with Halter, who is smarter, supremely competent, superbly qualified by academic and work experience and perhaps more progressive," Brummett explains in a column posted today for print in Stephens Media newspapers, including several in Arkansas."

Brummett had previously written that he intended to hold his nose and vote for incumbent Senator Blanche Lincoln. "In the end," he writes today. "I simply could not reward her campaign with a vote."

Why the change of heart? Brummett writes:

"Lincoln has persisted in vile mailers falsely accusing Bill Halter of out-sourcing jobs and wanting to harm Social Security when all he did was sit on a board of a company that placed a tiny percentage of newly created jobs in India and acknowledge a debate questioner’s premise that we need responsible spending increases and benefits cuts to make Social Security work in the long run.

"Another mailer, this one creepy, smeared Halter as a participant in “shady drug deals.”

Brummett also raises the question repeatedly asked by the Halter for U.S. Senate campaign:

"Why would a Republican group back her now with John Boozman waiting for November? Is it that she’s approximately as good a Republican investment as Boozman? Or is that Republicans fear the outsider message of Halter?"

Of Senator Lincoln's "cynically dishonest campaign," Brummett further opines:

"Lincoln feigns liberalism on financial reform in Washington while a mysterious Republican group runs ads in her behalf attacking Halter. ...

"She has pandered to some voters by distancing herself from Barack Obama and to others by embracing the president. She apparently assumes that neither of these groups is smart enough to see what she’s doing. That is to say she insults us."

Brummett says he wrote this column because he had to shoot straight with his readers.

As for Bill Halter's "outside message?" If you want the same insiders running Washington and ignoring Arkansas, then Senator Lincoln is your candidate. If you want change, vote for Bill Halter.