Atlanta, GA (Thursday, August 27, 2009) –By Alex Daniels

WASHINGTON — With the death of Sen. Edward Kennedy, the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Arkansas’ Sen. Blanche Lincoln has emerged as a contender to wield the gavel of the Senate Agriculture Committee.

It would take a reshuffling of several senators who rank higher in the seniority system, but Lincoln, the daughter of a sixth-generation eastern Arkansas rice farmer, is only a few moves from becoming chairman of the committee, which has jurisdiction over farm support,conservation, rural development and food stamps.

Because senators may lead only one committee at a time, here’s how it would work:

Second behind Kennedy on the health committee is Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn. But Dodd is chairman of the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, and the banking and insurance industries have a large presence in his state.

If Dodd chose to stay on the banking committee, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, is next in line. If he assumed the health committee chairmanship, he would have to give up his chairmanship of Agriculture.
Sens. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Max Baucus of Montana are next in line at Agriculture. But each already heads a powerful committee: Leahy has Judiciary, Conrad has Budget, and Baucus has Finance. Lincoln is next in seniority.

Asked about the prospect of taking the helm on Agriculture, Lincoln responded: “There are a lot of different people ahead of me in different places. I’m sure that stuff will evolve eventually.”
“It’s not something I’ve been thinking about,” she added. “I’m really just thinking about the loss of a good friend and colleague right now.”
Talk that Lincoln could gain the Agriculture chairmanship arose as the current session began in January and Kennedy’s health worsened. At the time, Lincoln declined to speculate on any leadership changes.

Ben Noble, a former policy adviser to Lincoln who is now a Washington lobbyist and executive director of the Arkansas Rice Federation, said that if Lincoln were to take over Agriculture, she would bring a depth of knowledge to the committee. “She’s been working toward this, in a sense, her whole career,” he said. Noble said that during debate last summer on the Food Conservation and Energy Act of 2008, popularly known as the farm bill, Lincoln successfully worked on behalf of Southern agricultural producers in limiting reductions on federal crop payments.
He said that if she were to become chairman, she and the panel’s ranking Republican, Georgia’s Sen. Saxby Chambliss, “could provide quite a partnership.” He cautioned that it is almost impossible to handicap leadership changes in the Senate. But he did speculate that Harkin, having written two farm bills, might want to switch to Health. Dennis Goldford, a political science professor at Drake University in Iowa, noted that with the exception of his 2008 victory, Harkin has squeaked into office by much tighter margins than his fellow Iowan, Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley.
“While Iowa is more urban that some stereotypes think it is, it is still very closely associated with agriculture,” Goldford said. “Chairing the Agriculture Committee puts him in a good position to take care of the people back home.”

If Harkin were to take over as chairman of Health, he would play a leading role in shepherding health-care legislation through the Senate. But given the acrimony associated with the current health-care debate, Goldford said, Harkin might not see that as a plus.
On health care, “point men have huge bull’s-eyes on their fronts and backs,” he said.
Front Section, Pages 7 on 08/27/2009