Tolbert: A Good Day To Be Tom Cotton
by January 23, 2014 10:16 pm 100 views
The Senate campaign in Arkansas this year is sure to have plenty of ebb and flow, but Thursday was certainly a good day to be Rep. Tom Cotton.
The day started off with the news that he outraised incumbent Sen. Mark Pryor in fundraising for the second consecutive quarter and is closing the cash gap. During the fourth quarter, Cotton raised over $1.24 million, ahead of Pryor’s $1.1 million. A remarkable feat for a challenger of a two-term incumbent Senator.
In addition, Cotton spent less than he took in building his cash balance up to $2.2 million, up from $1.8 million last quarter. Although Pryor is ahead in cash after accumulating funds for over a decade in the Senate with no opponent last election, he spent down his balance reducing it from $4.4 million to $4.2 million. So the momentum seems to be on Cotton’s side.
Following Cotton’s strong fundraising report, Larry Sabato moved the Arkansas Senate race from a “Toss Up” to “Leans Republican” – an important shift in what political prognosticators think will happen in 2014.
“Sen. Mark Pryor (D) appears to be at least a slight underdog to Rep. Tom Cotton (R) in a reddening state,” wrote Sabato.
On top of that, a group called Concerned Veterans for America is rolling out an ad (watch it here) starting Thursday and putting over $660,000 behind it. The ad criticizes Washington for voting for over $17 trillion in debt while at the same time cutting pensions for veterans.
“Tom Cotton voted against cutting military pensions to pay for more spending. He knows it’s wrong to break promises to America’s heroes. Cotton has his priorities right,” says the ad, which will air across multiple television markets in Arkansas.
To highlight just how bad the day got for Democrats supporting Sen. Pryor, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee pushed out a press release late in the day that reeked of desperation to stop the bleeding. The release tried rather clumsily to tie Cotton to an over-the-top comment former Gov. Mike Huckabee made at the RNC meeting today.
Yeah, it was a good day to be Tom Cotton.