Election Central: New Poll Shows Republican Leads

KATV’s Scott Inman wraps up some of the major political headlines of the day in Tuesday’s Election Central Daily Brief.

NEW POLLS
New poll numbers come from a survey of likely voters by Public Policy Polling conducted last Thursday through Sunday. It finds Republican Tom Cotton ahead in the U.S. Senate race, 43% to 38% over Democratic incumbent Mark Pryor. Libertarian Nathan LaFrance and Green party nominee Mark Swaney garnered 3% each and 13% were undecided.

In the Governor’s race, Republican Asa Hutchinson led 44% to 38% over Democrat Mike Ross. The third party candidates pulled in 5% collectively and 13% were undecided. The poll’s margin of error is plus or minus 2.6%.

The same survey found 68% of voters support the proposal to raise the state’s minimum wage while 24% opposed and 8% were not sure.

That proposal would raise the minimum wage from $6.25 per hour to $8.50 per hour by 2017. It is being legally challenged in the Arkansas Supreme Court.

SENATE RACE
Meantime, with four weeks until early voting begins and six weeks until Election Day, the final push is on in the Senate race. Senator Pryor launched a statewide tour on Tuesday calling it the “What’s at stake tour.”

The campaign has compiled a long list of Congressman Tom Cotton’s votes and put it into a report showing how those votes, if they had passed, could have impacted certain groups of Arkansans, such as women, seniors, children and veterans.

Cotton is campaigning in southeast Arkansas this week. His campaign calls Pryor’s accusations “one of the last gasps of a desperate politician that is struggling to hang on to power.”

GOVERNOR’S DEBATE
Don’t forget about the KATV gubernatorial debate. It’s now just two weeks away. Mike Ross and Asa Hutchinson will square off October 7th at 7 p.m. on the campus of UALR. You can watch it live on KATV, Ch. 7.