Ben Smith of Politico is reporting that an administration insider told him that unions just wasted millions of dollars on a forlorn hope in the Arkansas primary in an attempt to beat Democrat Blanche Lincoln.

“Organized labor just flushed $10 million of their members’ money down the toilet on a pointless exercise,” the official said. “If even half that total had been well-targeted and applied in key House races across this country, that could have made a real difference in November.”

Big Labor — like the SEIU and the AFL-CIO — threw millions of dollars into the Arkansas campaign of Bill Halter in an attempt to chastise Democratic Senator Blanche Lincoln because she had yet to vote “yes” on the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), a union friendly bill they’ve been panting after for several years.

The EFCA would take away the right of prospective union members to participate in a democratic, secret ballot when voting on representation and would also force federal arbitration on all unions. The bill would be a boon to union power.

That unions lost their bid to replace Lincoln with the union friendly Halter shows several things. One, unions are not as powerful as they once were, and two the voters of Arkansas are not union stooges. But unions are gaining a bad reputation nation wide, not just in Arkansas. The current go ’round between New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and the New Jersey teachers unions is a prime example in that the unions are losing the hearts and minds of the public in the Garden State.

Could this possibly be the very start of the downfall of unions in America? After all, they already account for less than 20 percent of the American workforce.

In any case, it is interesting times for Big Labor. Interesting and foreboding.

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