I've lost track of how many times I've called Tea Party Congressman Tom Cotton (R. AR) an asshole. That's because he keeps giving me reasons to call him one:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Arkansas Senate candidate Rep. Tom Cotton (R), who is challenging Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), defended his vote against an agriculture and nutrition assistance bill by characterizing food stamp recipients as addicts.
Cotton made his comments about food stamps during a July 8 tele-town hall, in audio sent to The Huffington Post.
"I don’t think that we should be using farmers as a way to pack more welfare spending into Barack Obama’s government, nor should we have a food stamp program that isn’t reformed that doesn’t have job training and a work requirement, so we can get people who are addicted the help they need," Cotton said. "We need to make sure that long-term addicts who are receiving this aren’t abusing taxpayer dollars."
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, more colloquially referred to as the food stamp program, serves 1 in 7 Americans, or 46 million. Congress cut food stamp spending by about 1 percent in a bipartisan compromise in order to pass the agriculture legislation. Republicans wanted to cut a larger chunk.
A hallmark of Republican opposition to food stamps and welfare has been the suspicion that some beneficiaries are addicted to drugs at radically higher rates than the rest of the population. In 2013, conservative House Republicans unsuccessfully tried to take food stamps out of the farm bill. They also attempted to empower states be able to screen food stamp applicants for evidence of drug abuse. Lawmakers stripped the tests from the final version of the measure.
Cotton was the only member of Arkansas' all-GOP House delegation to vote against the agricultural spending bill. He has variously justified his vote as one motivated by a desire for larger cuts, a belief that the program "has resulted in long-term dependency" and an impression that "millionaires can get food stamps."
He has also claimed the food stamp program is "riddled with fraud and abuse," though the benefits are estimated to have a fraud rate of just 1 percent. - Huffington Post, 7/17/14
This is just one of several reasons Cotton is an asshole and Senator Mark Pryor (D. AR) has been hitting him on all these reasons:
http://www.arktimes.com/...
THE GENDER GAP: A Mark Pryor campaign solicitation e-mail included this hard-hitting recitation of why a woman (or someone who believes in gender equality) should support Democratic Senator Pryor over Republican Tom Cotton. Tough. Accurate.
You won’t believe just how dangerous and extreme Cotton’s positions are. Make sure you know what we’re up against, then help us spread the word by sharing with your family and friends.
1. Tom Cotton doesn’t believe women deserve equal pay for equal work.
When Congressman Tom Cotton had the opportunity to support pay equity legislation, he voted no. In fact, Cotton went out of his way to say he opposes paycheck fairness for women, even though a recent study showed that women in Arkansas earn just 77 cents for every dollar earned by a man. It's even worse for African American women (66 cents) and Latina women (53 cents).
2. Tom Cotton said a woman's greatest fear in life is being left by her man.
Cotton also argued that women can't handle divorce, saying they will, quote, “slide into…material indigence and emotional misery.”
3. Tom Cotton doesn’t believe women can serve in combat units because of their “nature.”
Yep. He actually said that.
4. Tom Cotton voted against the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) - not once, but twice.
Not only did Cotton oppose the bipartisan version of VAWA, but he also voted against the watered-down Republican version of the bill. - Arkansas Times, 7/16/14
Now some worry that because of Arkansas' red trend, Pryor is very likely going to lose:
http://touch.latimes.com/...
By the time Pryor sought his second term in 2008, the shift was well underway. But Pryor's family name and conservative streak — he bucked his party and voted last year against expanding background checks for gun purchases — let him sail to office.
That year, Obama failed to carry the state, losing by a larger margin than John F. Kerry, the 2004 Democratic nominee.
Then Republicans took off. In 2010, voters ousted Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln by a whopping margin after opponents attacked her support for the president's Affordable Care Act. Two years later, voters elected only Republicans in the four-member House delegation. And for the first time since Reconstruction, the statehouse flipped from Democratic control to a GOP majority.
"If Republicans win in Arkansas in 2014, which I believe we will, it will cripple the Democratic Party here for more than a generation," said David Ray, campaign spokesman for Cotton.
Strategists, academics and voters largely agree on the tipping point: Obama.
"The vehement, really pretty deep dislike and distrust of the president among white Arkansans, especially white rural Arkansans, it's fair to say, is pretty intense," professor Barth said. "There's the sense, here's this guy, urbane, in a state that's pretty rural. They're very conscious of race. Then you add the questions about his religious tradition, in a state where religion is front and center, and the sense that he's just not one of us."
Though Obama is Christian, he has long battled opponents who incorrectly claim he is Muslim.
Republican strategist Bill Vickery calls Obama, alternately, "Darth Vader" and the "bubonic plague of the Democratic Party in Arkansas."
"There is a serious anti-Obama sentiment, and he is far and away the engine that is destroying the Democratic Party in Arkansas," said Vickery, a radio talk show host. "My lefty friends all like to point to race as an issue, and I'm not going to deny that. There is a percentage of it that is race."
Polls show the election remains a tossup, giving Democrats hope that Pryor will hang on. And a presidential run by Hillary Rodham Clinton could put Arkansas back into play for Democrats.
The path to Democratic victory in Arkansas, as in so many Southern states, lies in holding on to white voters with an appeal to pocketbook concerns while broadening enthusiasm among African Americans and Latino voters. That explains why Pryor is warning seniors about Cotton's votes to change Medicare and Social Security and is supporting a ballot measure in Arkansas to increase the minimum wage.
Where Obama is concerned, Pryor has maintained some distance while trying to win over Obama's supporters in the state's small but fast-growing minority communities. Pryor was quick to criticize the administration for its proposed regulations on greenhouse gas emissions, but recently stood alongside Obama as the president promised disaster aid after this spring's devastating tornadoes.
"This is a sort of make or break year for Democrats in Arkansas," said Lizzy Price, a spokeswoman for the state party. "We're putting everything into it." - Los Angeles Times, 7/17/14
But here are a few things to keep in mind before writing this race off for Pryor:
http://arkansasnews.com/...
Rep. Tom Cotton raised nearly $2.29 million during the second quarter of the year, outpacing Sen. Mark Pryor who raised just over $1.51 million over the same period.
Despite the strong quarter, Cotton ended June trailing Pryor in cash on hand as the two head into the final three months of a campaign that could decide which party controls the U.S. Senate next year. Cotton’s campaign ended June with $2.76 million in the bank while Pryor’s campaign closed June with $4.08 million.
Cotton, a Republican from Dardanelle serving his first term in the U.S. House, is challenging Pryor, a Democrat seeking a third term in the U.S. Senate. The campaign is drawing national attention including a massive influx of independent advertising from conservative and liberal groups.
The campaigns were required to file quarterly financial reports this week with the Senate clerk. The full reports have yet to be made public, but the Arkansas campaigns have released summary sheets that include revenues and expenditures for May and June. They had previously filed a pre-primary report covering April.
The reports show the Pryor campaign with total revenues for the three months of $1,510,852 and net operating costs of $1,836,039. Cotton’s reports show total revenues of $2,288,082 and net operating costs of $2,241,621. - Arkansas News, 7/16/14
And Pryor is being very smart with his money:
http://atr.rollcall.com/...
Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor has been buying up fall airtime for a race critical to nearly every hypothetical Republican path to the Senate majority.
The two-term Democrat, who faces the fight of his political life against GOP Rep. Tom Cotton, has so far reserved several hundred thousand dollars worth of TV time for the closing six weeks of the race, according to a media-buying source. The Pryor campaign would not comment on its media strategy, but that’s just an opening salvo in a state already seeing a plethora of spending from outside groups and both campaigns.
Amid a vigorous on-air back-and-forth over tornado disaster relief and religion in the past week, the contours of Pryor’s path to re-election remain unchanged. The Arkansas Democrat is banking that voters’ familiarity with him — and their disbelief that Cotton is on their side — will outweigh the antipathy toward Washington and President Barack Obama.
“Mark’s been around a really long time and his family has been around a long time,” said Sheila Bronfman, a Democratic consultant in Arkansas and longtime ally of the Clintons. “People like him and they trust him. They trust where he comes from and how he was raised, and I just think that’s making a big difference here.”
As Cotton superglues Pryor to the president every chance he gets, the incumbent is highlighting his challenger’s House votes against the farm bill and Superstorm Sandy disaster relief. Those messages have carried through in nearly $3 million in media spending from the two campaigns so far in 2014 — $1.4 million by Cotton and $1.25 million by Pryor, according to multiple sources. - Roll Call, 7/11/14
The Kochs, Karl Rove and the Club for Growth are spending big on Cotton but even the GOP is scared Cotton could screw this up. We can't allow this extremist to win. Click here to donate and get involved with Pryor's campaign:
http://pryorforsenate.com/