Still No Consensus On U.S. Senate Debate

This news story was reported by KATV’s Janelle Lilley.  To view the comments section of KATV’s web story, click here.

For months Rep. Tom Cotton’s campaign has asked Senator Mark Pryor to agree to debate, initially proposing a series of five. Thursday, the Pryor camp did just that, accepting an invitation by the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce. That debate would be aired on KATV in October.

The chamber proposal limits the debate to the topics of transportation, education and jobs, but with two candidates who currently serve in Congress going head-to-head, both men said today they would be willing to debate on their voting records in front of Arkansas.

Cotton’s campaign says they only received the Fayetteville Chamber proposal two days ago and are reviewing it.

“We don’t have all the details on it yet. There’s still questions that we’ve asked that haven’t been answered,” said Cotton spokesperson David Ray. “In the course of an hour long debate, I think there’s plenty of room for a question about any number of topics.”

Ray said Cotton is open to debating additional issues.

“Every poll in the country will tell you that the biggest issue for voters right now are jobs in the economy, healthcare and the debt and deficit in Washington,” said Ray.

KATV caught up with Senator Pryor following a manufacturing jobs forum and asked if would be willing to open the debate to more than just the topics of jobs, education and transportation.

“Well, I talk about all kinds of topics all the time,” said Pryor.

When pressed as to if he would be willing to have both candidates debate on their record, Pryor said, ‘Sure.’

The Pryor campaign later clarified that the senator misunderstood the question and that the campaign is happy with the topics they agreed to.

“We’ve agreed to this debate, we’re excited for this debate, and Arkansans look forward to hearing from Congressman Cotton why he voted against affordable student loans, opposes paycheck fairness for women and wants to spend billions to build roads and bridges overseas while here at home ours crumble,” said Pryor deputy campaign manager Erik Dorey.

KATV also has a statewide debate proposal in front of both campaigns with no limitation on topics which the Cotton campaign has agreed to. A Pryor spokesperson later explained why the Fayetteville debate was chosen.

“We liked the idea of a debate sponsored by a regional Chamber of Commerce in a format that allows these two candidates to drill down on the issues most important to Arkansans: growing our economy, creating good private-sector jobs and providing a quality education for our next generation,” Dorey said.