Being Mark Pryor

LITTLE ROCK — When Mark Pryor decided to run for student body president, his father told him it was a bad idea.

David Pryor, a hugely popular former governor and congressman, had recently moved his family from Arkansas to Bethesda, Md., after being elected to the U.S. Senate. Mark was an outsider at the local high school. His father thought his middle son wouldn't have much of a chance. He recommended that Mark sit the race out.

"I'm going to do it anyway," Mark told his father.

David supported the decision. He and his wife, Barbara, watched their son's campaignspeech at a school assembly, sitting "up in the rafters" so Mark wouldn't see them. They were mighty impressed.

"I felt he had the fire in his belly," David said.

And Mark won.

Now, nearly 30 years later,Mark is the U.S. senator, occupying the seat his father held for 18 years.

Some have wondered how much of his success was of his own making.

But as he has grown older and established a record of his own, more people, in Arkansas and Washington, see Mark as "Mark" and not "David's boy."

"I still feel like I have to go out and prove myself every day because at the end of the day, I'm Mark Pryor, not David Pryor," the senator said.

A Democrat, Pryor's up for his second six-year term this year. Of the 29 senators on the ballot, he alone avoided major party opposition.

He gained a higher profile this year by heading efforts in the Senate to overhaul the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

"In my eyes, when I [first] saw him, he was the son of David," said veteran Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii. "But he has developed nicely. That consumer product safety legislation, that's his bill. And, he's not a senior member. He's done very well. Both Pryors are very bright, but Mark works hard. Mark puts in more time. He's one of the early risers."

Fewer than half of today's 100 senators - 44 - served with David, who retired almost 12 years ago.

Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Ken Salazar, D-Colo., who didn't serve with David, said they don't even think about the family connection.

But a state GOP official in 2001 accused Mark Pryor of riding his father's coattails, saying he'd be a "busboy at Taco Bell" if not for his name.

"That's a perception he had to overcome, being David Pryor's son," Gov. Mike Beebe said. "Did I have those thoughts [years ago]? I'd be less than honest if I didn't admit that I wondered how much of Mark Pryor is David Pryor and how much is Mark Pryor. But I think he's overcome that. I think he's shown he's his own person."

At 45, Pryor is the secondyoungest senator. But he's hardly inexperienced.

He defeated Republican incumbent Sen. Tim Hutchinson in 2002, after serving four years as Arkansas' attorney general and four in the state House of Representatives.

His black hair is thinning slightly, showing bits of gray. When reading or giving speeches, he uses reading glasses.

"I was probably born in the wrong decade," Pryor said. "I really do hope I'm a throwback senator. Old school. I try to get things done, not get into the slash/burn kind of politics."

QUIET AND SHY

He doesn't drink or curse. His wife, Jill, says it's kind of "like being married to Clark Kent."

Beebe calls Pryor "pretty quiet and shy for a politician."

On the road, he likes to listen to old radio programs, such as The Shadow and Jack Benny - stuff that makes longtime aide Michael Teague groan. Pryor's favorite TV show is The Andy Griffith Show.

Similar to his father, he has a calming manner. He speaks in measured tones, rarely joking or getting excited, and almost always acknowledges points made by the other side before giving his own opinion.

He networks in the Senate but does little after-hours socializing. Doesn't play golf. Gets to work between 6 and 7 each morning and usually leaves late, grabbing something to eat on the way to his brother's house near the National Zoo, where he stays in an extra bedroom.

Pryor's aides say their boss is one who always wants more information on issues. He allows them to state their opinions and to give him advice, with the understanding he may reject it.

For instance, on June 25, the day the conference committee between House members and senators was to meet for the first time to discuss differences on the consumer product safety legislation, Pryor wanted to make sure the senators were in agreement. A meeting was set with the three Republican senators on the conference committee.

"Are you still going to meet with the Republicans?" Andy York, Pryor's legislative director, asked his boss. "There could be a downside. It could lead to acrimony."

Pryor listened to York, paused for a moment and told him calmly, "It'll be OK. Never hurts to talk."

As a freshman, Pryor sometimes takes his lumps.

For example, he said he'd been told by Inouye that he would be named chairman of the conference committee on the product safety bill.

But the committee named Inouye.

Inouye, however, emphasized during the meeting that Pryor had done most of the work.

"I may be the chairman, but Mark Pryor is the man," Inouye told a group gathered near Pryor after the meeting.

Pryor said that Inouye explained that Senate rules required that Inouye, as Commerce Committee chairman, be in charge of the conference committee. Pryor was fine with that.

QUALITY OF LIFE

Pryor tries not to spend too much time at the house of his older brother, David Jr., a regulatory affairs specialist and lobbyist for Federal Express. (His younger brother, Scott, lives in New York.) The senator flies home every weekend to be with his family.

About a year ago, Pryor and Jill moved from the Washington area, eager to spend more time in Arkansas, where they preferred to rear their children, son Adams, 14, and daughter Porter, 12. It was also stressful for Jill to be a thousand miles away when her brother was deteriorating from Lou Gehrig's disease. Her brother died in 2006.

They sold their house in Arlington, Va., for $1.2 million, which helped them buy a $700,000 house in the Heights neighborhood of Little Rock.

Mark and Jill keep in contact by e-mail and cell-phone calls, but the distance and travel can be difficult.

"Jill wants to go to the lake," Pryor told Teague the week before the Senate was to recess for the July Fourth break.

Her father has a house on Greers Ferry Lake that the Pryors often use.

"You're in Pine Bluff on Wednesday, but we can leave Thursday open," Teague responded.

"Let's do that," Pryor said. "The last break we had it seemed like we had at least one or two things scheduled each day. We never got into any rhythm for family time."

Having no major party opposition allowed him the luxury of also taking the following day, July Fourth, off. As a 16th wedding anniversary present to his wife, Pryor skipped the traditional Democratic festivals that mark the holiday in northeast Arkansas.

Pryor said Jill is "not really into" politics, and is from a Republican family. He said she considers herself an independent.

"She is very supportive of me and is very encouraging to me," he said. "She does not like a lot of the silliness that comes from politics. Our priority is for her to help with the family."

Jill says she was having lunch with friends when Mark called to tell her Arkansas' candidate filing period was over and no Republican had signed up.

She screamed in delight.

"It makes our quality of life so much better," she said.

Jill said Mark never complains about his hectic schedule and is always willing to help her at home. He rose to run errands to Wal-Mart and to the veterinarian after getting in from Washington at 9 the previous night.

"It's hard on him and he knows it's hard on his family but he feels a real strong desire that this is what he's supposed to be doing and I do, too," she said.

RELIGION AND CANCER

A potentially fatal bout with cancer has helped solidify for Pryor what's important in life, including his faith.

For seven years, they were members at Fellowship Bible Church in heavily Republican west Little Rock. But about five years ago the family switched toMosaic Church in an old Wal-Mart in southwest Little Rock.

The move followed a bit of acrimony at Fellowship Bible. During the 2002 race, the pastor there criticized Pryor for not taking a stronger anti-abortion stance.

Pryor has since said that he opposes abortion except in cases of rape, incest or health of the mother but wouldn't change the U.S. Constitution to override the U.S. Supreme Court, which has allowed abortion.

In the interview, Pryor said he "never considered myself prochoice or pro-life" and "based on political advice" said he was pro-choice in his 1998 attorney general's race.

Not long after winning the Senate seat, the Pryors followed a former assistant pastor at Fellowship, Mark DeYmaz, who left to start Mosaic Church. It has a similar conservative theology but focuses on building an ethnically and economically diverse congregation.

"The building is completely unpretentious," Pryor said. "It's actually great. It keeps you focused on God."

DeYmaz recalled that during the abortion debate in the 2002 race he and Pryor stayed up until 1 a.m. talking in the parking lot of Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Little Rock.

"People were doubting him," DeYmaz said. "He was asking questions, really seeking to understand spiritually as well as my own personal thoughts."

In Washington, Pryor is active in the Senate Prayer Breakfasts .

"He's talked about how being a cancer survivor strengthened his faith," said Salazar, the senator from Colorado and one of Pryor's closest friends in the Senate. "When you go through that type of experience as a very young man as he did, it just steels your resolve to do even better."

At 32 in 1995, he went to the doctor for what he thought was a basketball injury. But it turned out to be clear-cell sarcoma near his Achilles tendon, something that is usually fatal.

During surgery, a muscle was removed from his abdomen to strengthen his leg, and he jokes about how people refer to "sixpack abs."

"I have a five-pack," he says, chuckling.

Recovery took more than a year, much of it on crutches, in a wheelchair, or in bed, but Pryor is now cancer-free. His leg for the most part is healed but remains a little weak. He can no longer play basketball, and sometimes blisters take a long time to heal.

To help when his heel is irritated, he sometimes wears Birkenstock slip-on sandals on the Senate floor. This amuses fellow senators.

"I usually just laugh and tell them I know a place where they can get a good deal on them," he said.

'BRING YOUR DAD'

For months, Pryor's staff geared up for the most difficult election-year scenario they could envision: a showdown with former Republican Gov. Mike Huckabee. Pryor raised about $5 million. Instead, Huckabee made an unsuccessful bid for the Republican nomination for president, and the state GOP, which is recovering from losses in 2006, found no one else to run.

Republicans aren't too upset with his voting record.

"He's been more conservative on issues than I thought he'd be," said Jerry Cox, president of the conservative, Little Rock-based Family Council. "I think Mark Pryor connects very well with the people of Arkansas. Mark Pryor has a good heart, and I think that comes through when he speaks to people."

Even former opponents have been charmed.

Jeremy Hutchinson, Tim's son, recalled that Pryor once called him to see how his son, who had been hospitalized, was doing.

"He didn't have to do that," said Jeremy, a former Republican legislator from Little Rock.

A few weeks ago, Jeremy had business in Washington and called Pryor's office to see if he could meet with the senator. Pryor arranged for lunch in the Senate dining room.

"He said 'bring your dad,'" Jeremy recalled.

Tim Hutchinson, now a lobbyist in Washington, agreed.

"It wasn't awkward at all," Jeremy said. "There was no business. It was purely social. I just think [Pryor] is a nice guy."

While he has neutralized much of the opposition from the right, Pryor has frustrated some on the left.

Some Democrats were upset in 2006 when he publicly supported Sen. Joe Lieberman. The Connecticut senator had lost the Democratic primary but won another term as an independent.

In 2005 against his father's advice, Pryor took a leadership role in the "Gang of 14," a group of Democratic and Republican senators who bucked party leadership to help the Senate avoid a showdown over judicial nominees.

The move kept intact Senate rules, which Democrats wanted, but allowed some Bush judicial appointees to receive confirmation.

"Some of his votes, I see a lot of stuff, and people say, 'a real Democrat wouldn't vote for that,'" said Sam Ledbetter, a Little Rock lawyer and a former Democratic state legislator.

Ledbetter cited the 2007 law allowing suspected terrorists to be detained with no right to a trial in U.S. courts. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the law.

Pryor's Green Party opponent, lawyer Rebekah Kennedy of Greenbrier, also has jumped on Pryor for that vote.

"He's just not somebody who stands up for principles he says he supports," Kennedy said.

Pryor voted for an amendment to the bill that would have allowed suspects to have habeascorpus rights. When the amendment failed, Pryor still voted for the bill.

He explained: "It's un-American to hold them in there indefinitely and keep them in legal limbo. But we needed to clarify the law. The Bush administration continues to push the boundaries of the law. The law establishes a legal threshold that had to be met to clean up the process."

Pryor has consistently been ranked among the most conservative Democrats in the Senate by a National Journal review of votes. His liberal ranking hovers around 60 percent, much lower than the 81 percent liberal ranking his father had in 1995 and 1996, his last two years in the Senate.

"Mark is a little more conservative than his father," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.

Father and son say they are very much alike and that it's hard to compare senators serving in different decades.

Mark said he gets annoyed with partisan bickering and what the news media and political insiders think is news in Washington.

He says he doesn't keep up much with the pundits.

During an interview in Arkansas, the day Meet the Press host Tim Russert died, Pryor said he couldn't remember whether he had ever been on the show.

"Did we do that during the Gang of 14?" he asked Randy Massanelli, his state director.

"No," Massanelli said. "That was Chris Matthews."

But he finds some humor in Washington.

Pryor pointed out, smiling, that he had engineered it so Commerce Committee staff members order Mountain Valley water, which is bottled north of Hot Springs. He said he was tired of drinking a lesser brand.

"I mean, come on, you've got to have Mountain Valley water," Pryor said, clearly amused at his accomplishment.

'IT'S GOOD'

His Washington office is filled with reminders of Arkansas and signs he's "David's son."

Among them: a Razorbacks football helmet, a Central High School helmet, an Arkansas State helmet, photographs of his father.

He uses a rocking chair the tourism lobby gave his father.

He has on his desk the same nameplate his father had. It says: "Arkansas Comes First."

Being the son of a high-profile politician has been all that Mark has ever known.

"It's part of being Mark Pryor," Mark said.

David recalled that Mark loved politics, even as a child eagerly helping in his father's campaigns. In 1984, Mark took a semester off from college to work on David's re-election and kept a detailed journal of the campaign.

The father paid back the son in 2002, traveling the state giving speeches in support of his son.

"I've embraced my father's legacy. But I never really personally tried to live up to that."

Pryor says his father is a "better speaker than I am" and "has charisma. I don't think of myself as very charismatic."

Of their differences, David Pryor said, "When he looks into something, he will have researched it for more angles than I ever did."

Mark said he talks to his father at least once a week. But fatherly political advice is rare.

Sometimes, his father will tell him that he ran into a local politician who is mad at a vote his son took.

"Usually, I know about it already," the son said. "But he can be honest with me. It's good."Pryor's highlights His career as Arkansas attorney general and U.S. senator

ATTORNEY GENERAL

SHORTLY AFTER taking offi ce in 1999, Pryor contended that private attorneys, who claimed more than $200 million from the state's share of the tobacco settlement, were due none of it. He was upheld by the state Supreme Court.

HIS OFFICE DEFENDED the state at the 2000 trial in the Lake View school funding case and also before the state Supreme Court in 2002. The state lost. PRYOR WAS neutral on the 1999 law that allowed certain types of payday loans. He said he initially opposed it but changed to neutral after the industry agreed to revisions that Pryor said strengthened consumer protections.

IN 1999, the Legislature passed Pryor's top proposal, setting up a "do not call" list at the attorney general's offi ce.

IN 2001, he argued unsuccessfully before the Legislature for a hate-crime law. The legislation passed the Senate but failed in a House committee.

Among his proposals that passed that year were the Children's Product Safety Act, which required his offi ce to maintain a list of unsafe children's products, and the Computer Crime Act, to help prosecute Internet pornographers.

IN 2002, he opined that a proposal by Gov. Mike Huckabee to shift funds from tobacco settlement revenue to Medicaid without legislative input would violate the constitution. Huckabee later changed his mind.

U.S. SENATE

PRYOR OPPOSED a 2003 Senate resolution to affirm support of the U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. Three years later, he voted to make it a federal crime to help a teenage girl avoid parental-notification laws by taking her to another state for an abortion.

HE HELPED ORGANIZE the "Gang of 14" in 2005, made up of seven Republican and seven Democratic senators as a way to ease the confirmation of judicial appointees by President Bush while ending the threat of a change of Senate rules pushed by some Republicans and opposed by Democrats to eliminate some fi libusters.

ONE OF THE FIRST senators to publicly seek the resignation of U.S.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Pryor in 2007 accused Gonzales of lying to him and thwarting the Senate's attempts to investigate his firing of U.S. attorneys, including that of Republican Bud Cummins of Little Rock.

PRYOR WAS THE ONLY Democrat in 2007 to vote against a timeline for withdrawing troops from Iraq, saying he would only support a timeline if its terms were secret.

IN 2007, Pryor voted against Bush's plan to give some illegal aliens a pathway to lawful status.

NOW PRYOR has taken the lead in the Senate on a bill to overhaul the Consumer Product and Safety Commission. Differences between the House and Senate are being worked out in a conference committee.

Key dates

1963

Born Mark Lunsford Pryor Jan. 10 in Fayetteville. His middle name is his mother's maiden name.

1975

Moved into the Governor's Mansion when his father, David, was elected governor.

1979

Moved to Washington, D.C., after his father was elected to the U.S. Senate.

1981

Graduated from Walt Whitman High School, Bethesda, Md.

1988

Received law degree from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville where he also earned a bachelor's degree. Took job as a lawyer for the Wright, Lindsey and Jennings fi rm in Little Rock.

1990

Elected to the state House representing sections of Little Rock, defeating three other candidates.

1992

Married Jill Guffi n, whom he had met in college.

1994

In the Democratic Party primary, failed in a challenge to incumbent Attorney General Winston Bryant. Son, Adams, born. Returned to private legal practice.

1995

Daughter, Porter, born.

1996

Underwent successful surgery for potentially fatal cancer found near his left Achilles tendon.

The cancer hasn't returned. Entered into a solo legal practice.

1998

Won the race for attorney general, defeating Republican Betty Dickey.

2002

Became the only Democratic challenger in the country that year to unseat an incumbent Republican senator when he defeated Tim Hutchinson.

2008

Faces no Republican opposition in bid for second six-year term. Rebekah Kennedy of Greenbrier is the Green Party candidate.