Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor released a series of reports Tuesday estimating how much money Arkansas would have lost if a majority of Congress had voted like his Republican challenger, U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton.
At a news conference at the Firefighter's Memorial at the state Capitol, Pryor released a statewide version of the study titled, "What's at Stake, A Study on Tom Cotton's Votes Against Arkansas." Pryor said he plans to tour the state with copies of region-specific reports to talk about Cotton's voting record.
"One of the sharp contrasts between my opponent and me is he just doesn't listen. He seems to be out of touch with the state of Arkansas. I think he's in touch with the billionaires who are backing his campaign," Pryor said Tuesday. "He's voted against our seniors. He's voted against our students. He's voted against our women. He's also voted against working families all over the state of Arkansas, and at the end of the day that's for one simple reason, so that he can give his billionaire backers enormous tax breaks."
Cotton's campaign challenged Pryor's claims.
"What you're seeing is the last gasp of a desperate Washington politician, desperate to hold on to power, with no plan, no ideas, no positive vision, nothing from his decade in Washington that he can be proud of or campaign on," said campaign spokesman David Ray.
Pryor's campaign said the study released Tuesday used county-level data for senior citizens, women, children, college students and veterans as well as other community issues to determine the financial impact of some policies, bills or budget plans that Cotton voted for. It also examined the effect Cotton's votes would have had on tax revenue.
For example, the study estimates what money Arkansas would have lost if the Violence Against Women Act had failed. Cotton voted against the measure.
The study looked at the grant funding provided to Arkansas domestic-violence shelters and law enforcement agencies. The study contends that statewide, $513,433 in shelter funding would have been cut.
Most of the scenarios in the study, according to the methodology, look at the worst case. For example if the Violence Against Women Act funding was completely eliminated and funding was not increased in other bills to supplement those shelters, then $513,433 would have been lost.
Ray answered by attacking Pryor's record on women's issues.
"Arkansas women know that the Obama agenda is not working for them," he said. "It's resulted in fewer economic opportunities, higher unemployment, higher prices for everything from health insurance to gasoline to groceries. And Arkansas women know they can do better than Sen. Pryor."
Several of Pryor's supporters also spoke at the rally, highlighting votes affecting women, students and veterans.
Alexander Watkins, a University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff student, said he was working to engage college-age voters.
"Sen. Pryor has been a strong supporter of keeping college affordable for students like me," he said. "Mark Pryor's opponent Tom Cotton actually voted to let the interest rates on my student loans double."
Ray said Cotton isn't opposed to federal student loans, but he doesn't believe the federal government should decide interest rates "down to a decimal point."
The study claimed that 6,571 University of Arkansas students would have higher rates on student loans if Cotton had successfully blocked student-loan legislation favored by Pryor. The study says another 4,179 University of Central Arkansas students and 5,834 Arkansas State University students would have seen higher loan interest rates as well.
"It's more out-of-pocket expenses and for a lot of people that's the difference between whether they can go to college or not. That $1,000, that $2,000, that's the difference," Pryor said at the conference Tuesday. "We need more people in Arkansas to go to college and complete college, not fewer people in the state."
Copies of the reports will eventually be available at various Democratic field offices throughout the state. The campaign plans to visit several cities in each region for campaign stops to highlight some of the findings.
Metro on 09/24/2014