Sen. Mark Pryor, hippie puncher
Sen. Mark Pryor (D-ish-AR) decided it was a
smart move for his 2014 reelection prospects to vote with 29 Republicans against allowing the Senate to even proceed to discussing sensible gun legislation.
Just in case Pryor has any bright ideas about bucking the base on other issues, say the deficit and Social Security, the AARP has some news for him to mull over. Last week, they released their national polling on chained CPI, showing 70 percent of voters older than 50 opposed to the chained CPI for Social Security, 78 percent opposed to it for retired and disabled veterans. This week, they're releasing the state level polling. Arkansas hates it even more [pdf].
Three-quarters of 50+ Arkansas voters are opposed to using the chained CPI for Social Security (76 percent of Democrats, 71 percent of Republicans, 74 percent of independents) and 82 percent are opposed to it being applied to veterans (80 percent of Democrats, 81 percent of Republicans, 85 percent of independents). But the number that is potentially of most interest to Mr. Pryor, 71 percent of older voters in Arkansas will be "less favorable" toward their representatives in the House and Senate who vote for the chained CPI. That's 73 percent of Democrats and independents, and 68 percent of Republicans.
So while it might be just a little bit tempting to Pryor to punch some hippies and piss off the liberal base on this issue, he (and every politician) needs to remember that who is going to feel the blow are older voters. And they punch back really hard.