Tolbert: Rasmussen Has Cotton Up 7; Cotton Accepts MTP Debate Offer

A steady stream of polls are beginning to come in on the closely-watched U.S. Senate race.  The latest poll from Rasmussen shows the largest lead yet for Republican Rep. Tom Cotton putting him seven points ahead of Sen. Mark Pryor.  The survey was conducted on September 24-25 among 750 likely voters in Arkansas and has a margin of error on +/-4.

Tom Cotton (R) 47%
Mark Pryor (D) 40%
Other Candidate 5%
Undecided 8%

This is a turnaround for the Rasmussen poll in August, which showed Pryor up a point at 44% to Cotton’s 43%.  In August, Rasmussen also polled the Arkansas Governor’s race and found Mike Ross (46%) up two points over Asa Hutchinson (44%.) They likely also polled the governor’s race in their September survey so look for those results soon.  It will be interesting to see if they show a similar swing for the Republican in that race as well.

Also, on Friday, Chuck Todd – the new host of NBC’s “Meet the Press” – invited both Senate candidates to a debate.

“They’ve been exchanging a lot of television ads back and forth,” Todd told local KARK reporter David Goins. “At the end of the day, let’s sit down at a table. Let’s hear what the real differences are. Let’s hear Mark Pryor and Tom Cotton go back and forth.”

Cotton accepted the debate proposal almost immediately.

“We have accepted this debate proposal, along with six other televised debates for this fall. We hope Senator Pryor will join us in this debate, especially since he has only committed to one head-to-head debate with Tom Cotton and has refused to include foreign policy as a debate topic. Arkansas voters deserve the opportunity to hear Senator Pryor explain why he voted for Obamacare, amnesty for illegal immigrants, and trillions in new debt,” said Cotton Spokesman David Ray.

Your move Sen. Pryor.

The one-on-one debate Ray is referring to is the Fayetteville Chamber debate, which will be held on Tuesday, Oct. 14th, and will be aired on all of the ABC affiliates statewide. Talk Business & Politics host Roby Brock is the moderator for the debate.

UPDATE – The numbers are now in from Rasmussen for the Governor’s race as well…

Asa Hutchinson (R) 46%
Mike Ross (D) 42%
Other Candidate 4%
Undecided 8%