Cook: Tom Cotton Polled U.S. Senate Race After One Month In Congress

Tom Cotton’s campaign leaked the results of a recent internal poll to “The Hill” that conveniently shows him leading Mark Pryor by seven points. However, in Cotton’s polling memo he inadvertently released information proving Tom Cotton is an over-ambitious politician who just used his Congressional seat as a stepping-stone for higher office.

OnMessage Inc., a Republican polling firm, is Cotton’s pollster and they released a polling memo today trumpeting their results, claiming Cotton leads Pryor 47% to 40%.

OnMessage Inc. included a graphic in their polling memo showing their Arkansas Senate race polling trend lines since February of 2013. Think about that for a just a moment.

Tom Cotton was sworn in as a Freshman Congressman on January 3, 2013. And in February of 2013 Tom Cotton ran a statewide poll testing his chances of becoming a U.S. Senator. After one month in office, Tom Cotton wasn’t concerned with representing the Fourth Congressional District to the best of his ability, he just wanted to be a U.S. Senator.

When you check Cotton’s fundraising reports with the Federal Election Commission, you’ll see that on March 15, 2013 his campaign paid OnMessage Inc. $4,250 for “polling consulting.” Check out page 121 of his April 15, 2013 fundraising report to see for yourself.

Between OnMessage’s polling memo revealing the February 2013 Senate poll and Cotton’s Congressional campaign paying them one month afterward, it appears Tom Cotton was testing the Senate waters before he even knew where the Congressional bathrooms were.

By the way, when you look at the OnMessage Inc. graphic you’ll notice that not one of their polls ever had Tom Cotton trailing Mark Pryor. But numerous non-partisan polls have shown Mark Pryor leading at various times.

I wonder if OnMessage ever did any work for Congressman Eric Cantor?

The bottom line is Tom Cotton was in Congress for one month and he was already looking for a promotion. That’s putting personal ambition before the people who elected him in the first place.