Former President Bill Clinton and Gov. Mike Beebe traveled to Texarkana, West Memphis, Blytheville and Fort Smith on Sunday, pleading with Arkansas voters to keep the state in Democratic hands on Election Day.
RELATED ARTICLES
http://www.arkansas…">GOP keys on Obama as elections near http://www.arkansas…">Clinton aides reject call for early decision
It was Clinton's third Arkansas campaign blitz in the past month. Despite a slew of surveys showing Republicans ahead, Clinton insisted that Democrats would win on Election Day if they get their people to the polls.
"We're trying to make the whole state because this election is going to come down to somewhere between 20,000 to 30,000 of your fellow citizens and whether they vote or not. If they vote, our guys will win. If they don't, they might not," Clinton told the Texarkana crowd.
While Democrats were flying from rally to rally, Arkansas' Republican candidates largely avoided the campaign trail. U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton, who is trying to unseat two-term U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor; gubernatorial candidate Asa Hutchinson; and others attended church services, their campaigns said.
Some Democratic candidates also paused to pray, but with the polls set to open in less than 48 hours, Sunday was hardly a day of rest.
The Democrats at the top of the ticket -- Pryor and gubernatorial candidate Mike Ross -- accompanied Clinton as he jetted across the state.
Clinton criticized the outside groups that have spent millions of dollars on ads criticizing Pryor, Ross and other Arkansas Democrats.
"All of these people paying for these ads dumping on these candidates, where are they going to be Wednesday morning? They aren't going to be here. They don't give a rip about you," Clinton said.
"One of two things are going to happen Wednesday morning ... They'll either go home with their tail between their legs, or they'll be in Washington with a new suit trying to collect on their investments. I like them going home better than collecting on their investments."
Ross, who represented Texarkana and the rest of southwest Arkansas for 12 years in Congress, urged his former constituents to round up any stragglers who haven't voted yet.
"Adopt 10 people. Drive them to the polls if you have to do that," he said, adding that people should prepare for rainy weather Tuesday. "It's better to get wet for one day than to be soaked for the next four years."
Before introducing Clinton, Beebe singled out a woman in the audience holding a small sign drawn in bright blue and pink crayon that said, "We Miss Bill." He asked her to hold it up again, before he called on Clinton to take the stage.
After the speech, Beth McHenry, of Texarkana, said it was embarrassing to be singled out, but the sign reflects how she feels.
"I've voted for [Clinton] when I was 18 and every time I could since," she said. "I believe what he said today, that we need to do everything we can for education, that we need to work together. I think these are the candidates that will do that."
As the crowd dispersed, Clinton headed for Crittenden County, about 270 miles away.
In West Memphis, with temperatures in the 50s, hundreds of people waved fans with Pryor's campaign logo as they stood in the sun outside Mid-South Community College's Donald W. Reynolds Center and waited for Clinton, Pryor, Ross, Beebe and 1st Congressional District Democratic candidate Jackie McPherson.
Clinton told the crowd that Cotton is trying to make the Senate race a referendum on President Barack Obama because Cotton can't defend his own voting record as a first-term Republican congressman.
"That tactic is a scam," he said.
He said Republicans want division and called Arkansas' Democratic candidates the "grow together, work together team."
"This whole thing is coming down to turnout. The early vote turnout in eastern Arkansas is not as high as it ought to be, not as high as it is in the other districts of the state," Clinton said. "You've got to do it, and you've got to get your friends to do it, and I hope you will do it. Your future depends on it."
Pryor started by asking the crowd to raise their fans and snapping a few photos from the podium for his Facebook page.
"It all comes down to this. A lot of our future, and I'm not exaggerating here, a lot of our future, depends on what happens [today] and the next day," he said. "There is no doubt in my mind that the bigger the vote, the brighter the future."
Beebe also urged attendees to think about the future.
"The people that are running against these three folks up here have never demonstrated an ability to reach across an aisle and work with somebody else," Beebe said. "If it's your way or the highway, you end up in a ditch."
Beebe told audience members that they all know people who won't vote unless they are prodded to do so.
"We lose this stuff if our people sit on the sidelines and don't go vote," he said. "This race is going to come down to 10,000, 12,000 or 14,000 votes."
After the speech, the candidates joined Clinton and Beebe in shaking hands and snapping photos with attendees for about 10 minutes.
Tears streamed down the face of Sara Fisher, 54, of West Memphis after she met Clinton.
"I almost fainted," Fisher said. "I hugged that man; I was about to give him a kiss."
She said she campaigned for him during his first presidential run but had never met him.
Fisher said she had already voted and is encouraging others to vote as well. She said the speeches by Clinton, Beebe and the candidates solidified the issues for her.
"I understand now how important it is to come out and vote," she said.
After finishing in West Memphis, Clinton headed about 60 miles north to Mississippi County, just miles from the Missouri line.
More than 500 people stood in front of a downtown Blytheville bookstore Sunday evening and, bundled in coats and scarves to ward off the chill, cheered as the former president and others took the stage.
"This should not be a close election," Clinton said, referring to the polls that show Republican leads in the U.S. Senate and Arkansas gubernatorial races. "But it is. There's been an enormous amount of money from other places spent to tell you how bad these guys on the platform are."
Scores of people held up cellphones, snapping pictures and shooting video of Clinton; the phones lit up the darkened West Main Street as the sun set.
Pryor called his race with Cotton "tight" and said residents needed to be sure to vote.
"There are big decisions to make in this state," Pryor said. "You have the power. The main problem in Washington is it's way too divided. Do you want to vote for someone who opposes and blocks everything his opponents want and adds to the gridlock and bickering?"
Pryor criticized Cotton's campaign emphasis.
"He has based his entire campaign against one man," Pryor said. "I'm running for 3 million people."
As the crowd dispersed after the event, Vonah Leathers, 79, of Blytheville walked back toward her car and said she planned to vote today.
"I've loved Bill Clinton since the first day he was president," she said. "I go to every rally I can. This year it's very important for everyone to stand together. It's a crucial point in our state's time. I hope the younger ones here today feel the same way."
As Clinton prepared to wrap up Sunday's tour in Fort Smith, Republicans said the focus should be on the president from Hawaii, not the man from Hope.
"It doesn't bother us that President Clinton is supporting Sen. Pryor. What bothers us is that Sen. Pryor supports President Obama and has rubber-stamped his agenda 93 percent of the time in Washington," said David Ray, a spokesman for the Cotton campaign. "Based on all the feedback we're getting out on the campaign trail, door knocking and phone calling, voters are ready to elect a conservative senator like Tom Cotton who represents their views and values."
Metro on 11/03/2014