Cook: Cotton Starts Week Off On The Wrong Foot (UPDATED)

It’s only Tuesday and it’s already turning out to be a bad week for Tom Cotton.

On Monday, Mark Pryor’s campaign released a new web video going after Tom Cotton’s numerous votes against disaster relief. The video features numerous Mayflower residents taking issue with Cotton’s votes and they claim he’s actually never visited the city since the tornado devastated the town in April.

On Tuesday two additional developments added to Cotton’s troubles.

The Pryor campaign released a new television ad pushing back against Cotton’s impugning of the Senator’s Christian faith last week. As you recall, Cotton claimed Mark Pryor only thought about his faith at 11:00am on Sundays. That was a disgusting personal attack by Cotton on Pryor’s deeply held Christian faith. Cotton refused to apologize for his comments.

Pryor’s new TV ad quotes the Bible passage Matthew 7:1, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged”, and has Pryor speaking to camera about his faith.  Cotton’s personal attack allowed Pryor to portray the freshman Congressman as petty and judgmental and at the same time allowed Senator Pryor to remind voters about his faith. Not a bad spot for Mark Pryor to be in.

Finally, today U.S. News and World Report published an article bringing to the national stage what Arkansans have already figured out. In a small state that values retail politics, Tom Cotton is a “cold fish.”

From U.S. News and World Report:

“Republicans from Washington to Little Rock are privately distressed that Rep. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., – a candidate once hailed as their most talented U.S. Senate recruit of the cycle – has lost his luster in his challenge to second-term Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor. The overarching problem: While Cotton’s resume is sparkling, his persona is flat. He speaks with authority, but lacks warmth. His wooden delivery is more often academic, lacking an everyday, common touch that’s still essential in a place with slightly less than 3 million people, the smallest state in the south.”

Summing up the week so far: Tom Cotton is a “cold fish” lacking the common touch who votes against critical disaster relief and attacks a fellow Christian’s faith.

UPDATE: While Tom Cotton had a couple of hits this week, we must also include the fact that Mark Pryor’s campaign had a snafu.

Talk Business has details on how Pryor’s campaign recently shot a commercial in Mayflower and the owner of the property they filmed on there says he was misled on the purpose of the ad.

Pryor’s campaign says the campaign had permission to film there and they were upfront with the property owner on the purpose of the ad. However, the campaign is editing out shots of the property in their online ad.

This snafu dinged the Pryor campaign while they tried to highlight Cotton’s vote against disaster relief. Cotton’s campaign is attempting to shame Pryor for highlighting the Congressman’s record of voting against disaster relief with their latest TV ad.  Cotton did vote against disaster relief numerous times, but today’s snafu allows him to slightly blunt Pryor’s attack.