Club for Growth Action announced Wednesday it will run ads opposing U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor on broadcast and cable television in Arkansas, promising a “six-figure” ad buy.
Using a female narrator, the 30-second ad says, “Liberal Mark Pryor: He’s got a lot to answer for.” It questions his support of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, votes on spending and backing of President Barack Obama’s agenda.
A release from the Washington, D.C.-based political action committee said the ad will begin airing today.
Club For Growth Action has already spent $182,944.97 on mailed fliers and television commercials opposing Pryor this election. Club for Growth has spent a total of $8,452 to oppose ten other candidates this year.
U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton, 36, a Republican backed by Club for Growth in 2012, announced Tuesday he would challenge Pryor, 50, a two term Democrat seeking re-election in 2014.
Pryor spokesman Amy Schlesing called the ad another example of out-of-state special interests trying to sway Arkansans on Cotton’s behalf.
“We’ve seen it before, and we’ll see it again, because they own him,” she said.
The group is connected with Jackson Stephens Jr. of Little Rock, who donated $1 million to the PAC during the 2012 election. He is son of Jackson Stephens, who founded Stephens Group Inc., a successful Little Rock investment bank.
Its donors were a fundraising force in the 2012 election of Cotton, giving him $249,833 of the about $1.75 million he raised. Only two other House candidates received money from Club for Growth: U.S. Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and U.S. Rep. Steven King, R-Iowa.
The competition between Pryor and Cotton is expected to be one of the most watched in the nation as Republicans try to reclaim control of the U.S. Senate. Pryor has amassed nearly $4 million for the campaign. Cotton, who represents the state’s 4th Congressional District, has more than $1 million in contributions that he can transfer to his Senate campaign.
With 15 months before the 2014 general election, $577,868 has been spent by groups opposing Pryor. Groups opposing Cotton have spent $308,111, according to the Sunlight Foundation Reporting Group, a nonpartisan group in Washington, D.C. that tracks campaign spending.
Club for Growth also announced its endorsement of Cotton on Wednesday, with President Chris Chocola saying in a statement, “Tom Cotton is a taxpayer hero and a fighter against the Obama agenda.”
In March, the group included 1st District U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford of Jonesboro, a Republican, on its list of congressmen it hopes will draw primary challengers in the 2014 election.
Pryor’s campaign aired its first ad against Cotton this week, saying he should run from his voting record rather than running so soon for another office. The ad criticizes Cotton for opposing aid for disaster victims on the grounds that it would add to the national debt and insisting that food-stamp funding be stripped from the national farm bill.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 08/08/2013