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Themes Same, Tone New in Arkansas Debate (Andrew DeMillo Analysis)

3 min read

FAYETTEVILLE — Based on their back-to-back televised debates, the hotly contested race between Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor and Republican Rep. Tom Cotton boils down to one question: Do voters hate President Barack Obama or billionaires more?

Little new ground was plowed in the lines of attack between Pryor and Cotton as they faced off last week in their only debates, but it offered a new glimpse at the increasingly caustic tone of a race that has dominated Arkansas’ political scene for more than a year.

With few exceptions, the two rivals stuck close to familiar campaign themes that have played out over thousands of television ads, dueling press releases and news conferences in a race that could decide which party controls the U.S. Senate next year. But for many viewers who haven’t been closely watching the race — or have been hitting the mute button whenever attack ads start — it was their first look at just how heated the Senate fight has become.

Cotton used nearly every answer at the debates in Conway and Fayetteville to try and tie Pryor to President Barack Obama — repeatedly accusing the incumbent lawmaker of being a rubber stamp for a president who remains deeply unpopular in the state.

“Barack Obama has said his policies are on the ballot, every single one of them. I agree,” Cotton said during Monday’s Arkansas Educational Television Network debate in Conway. “In Arkansas, those policies are called Mark Pryor.”

Pryor, meanwhile, used both debates to accuse Cotton of representing billionaires and outside conservative groups that have been backing his bid.

“They are investing in Tom Cotton just like they would invest in a company. Why? They want to get a payback on their investment, and they will,” Pryor said in Conway. “If he’s elected to the Senate, they will get six years of paydays.”

Both rivals tried to use each other’s lines of attack against each other. When Pryor said during Tuesday’s debate in Fayetteville that he’d define the middle class as households making up to $200,000, Cotton shot back: “Sen. Pryor must be the one hanging out with out of state billionaires if he thinks $200,000 in Arkansas is the middle class.”

Pryor also tried to counter Cotton’s anti-Obama theme.

“Clearly, Congressman Cotton is running against one man but I’m running for 3 million Arkansans,” Pryor said in Conway.

The two tangled over a variety of issues, including the health care law, the farm bill and student loans. And each exchange offered a hint of just how personal this race has become as it heads into the final stretch.

Pryor tried to portray Cotton as someone who’s done little in his first term in Congress, accusing the lawmaker of polling for his Senate bid “when he didn’t even know where the restrooms were.” Cotton touted his military background as a better way to learn leadership than in Congress and accused Pryor of not being “tough enough” to stand up to the president.

The debates were the only face-to-face matchup voters will see between the two rivals, who had spent months haggling over the details and number of debates. Despite the talking points, they still provided rare unscripted moments in a race where the candidate and outside groups have spent more than $38 million, according to the nonprofit Sunlight Foundation. The vast majority of that money is going toward a barrage of television spots blanketing Arkansas’ airways.

The biggest beneficiary of last week’s debates may be the ad-makers, who now have fresh material for those spots.

(Andrew DeMillo has covered Arkansas government and politics for The Associated Press since 2005.Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ademillo)

(Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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