Ebola ad on Cotton accurate, Pryor says

U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor held a news conference Wednesday to defend a television advertisement released this week that accuses his Republican opponent, U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton, of voting to cut funding that prepares America for an Ebola outbreak.

Cotton said he actually voted to fund the program and that Pryor is intentionally misleading voters.

The ad, which began running over the weekend, features news clips from coverage of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa that has so far killed more than 1,400 people.

"Tom Cotton voted against preparing America for pandemics like Ebola," the ad states after displaying a map of West Africa on the screen.

WashingtonPost.com called the commercial "scare-tastic political advertising." And MSNBC's program Morning Joe aired the entire 30-second commercial before blasting it. "Good Lord ... Seriously?" asked host Joe Scarborough. "Is this a Saturday Night Live ad?"

From his Little Rock campaign office Wednesday, Pryor talked about Cotton's vote against the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Reauthorization Act of 2013, which eventually passed with Cotton's support and provided money to several public health and emergency preparedness programs.

"We need to make sure when we have a necessary function of government, like keeping our citizens safe, we don't make these cuts," Pryor said. "The hazard of just blindly making cuts to spending and not understanding the consequences of your actions I think can be seen in this emergency preparedness vote we're talking about today."

Cotton also held a news conference to address the campaign ad Wednesday afternoon at a campaign stop at the Springdale Republican Party office.

"Ebola is a very serious matter, but Mark Pryor's ad is not," Cotton said. "His ad has already been called bizarre, desperate, scare tactic and preying on fear. Here's the simple fact: I voted for the exact same bill that Mark Pryor voted for. I opposed an earlier draft that would have allowed President [Barack] Obama to authorize the mandatory assignment of Arkansas health officials to an outbreak zone against their wishes."

Pryor defended the campaign's choice to omit Cotton's yes vote on an amended bill that funded those programs.

"When Congressman Cotton voted no on this, he had no idea that months and months later he might get a second bite at this apple," he said.

The ad comes as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has made efforts to calm concerns about the Ebola virus. The agency has said an outbreak is highly unlikely in the U.S.

"I wouldn't say it's contributing to the hysteria," Pryor said. "I think it's a very current topic that's on the front page just about every day, or one of the lead stories in the news just about every night. It's something that people care about; they're paying attention to [it]. And the two of us have a voting record on this, and our voting record is in sharp contrast. I think it's fair game."

Pryor didn't address comments recorded at a June political gathering attended by Cotton and sponsored by the conservative political backers Charles and David Koch. Staff said Pryor hadn't had time to review the recordings before the news conference. Cotton was criticized for skipping the Bradley County Pink Tomato Festival to appear at the Koch event in California.

The recording was posted on a YouTube Channel with liberal-leaning politics late Tuesday.

On the tape, Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity -- a Koch-sponsored PAC, says of Cotton, "This guy is running for the Senate, actually voting with 61 Republicans in the House to vote against the farm bill in Arkansas."

The crowd loudly applauded as Phillips added, "He did that knowing he was in a tough race."

Erik Dorey, Pryor's deputy campaign manager, said the recording illustrated Cotton's priorities.

"If there was ever any mystery about why Congressman Cotton would so consistently and recklessly vote against the best interest of Arkansans it's now crystal clear and caught on tape," he said. "In a room full of billionaires at an exclusive five-star resort Congressman Cotton proudly stood and accepted their applause for voting against the [farm bill], the single most important piece of legislation for Arkansas' economy."

Cotton's campaign declined to comment on the tape, but Fred Brown, Republican National Committee spokesman for Arkansas, said both the ad and the recording were desperate.

"It seems Mark Pryor's campaign is just moving from one desperate political stunt to the next, showing he will do and say anything in order to go back to Washington and continue rubber stamping President Obama's liberal agenda," Brown said.

Metro on 08/28/2014

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