Senate Democrats Launch First IE Ad of 2014 (Video)

Senate 2014: Cotton is the target of the DSCC's first IE ad of the cycle. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call File Photo)
Senate 2014: Cotton is the target of the DSCC's first IE ad of the cycle. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call File Photo)
By Kyle Trygstad
Posted August 5, 2014 at 11:49am

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee launched its first independent expenditure ad of the cycle Tuesday, the premiere installment in a $3.6 million buy in Arkansas on behalf of Sen. Mark Pryor.  

The ad pushes a theme Democrats have worked for months to sew into the race — that Republican Rep. Tom Cotton can’t be trusted. www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JSmcLIOFho  

“When they needed funding, Tom Cotton was the only member of Congress from Arkansas who voted against it,” a former hospital social worker says in the ad.  

Cotton, a freshman congressman, is a top Republican recruit, and Pryor is one of the most vulnerable senators . But the race remains tight with three months to go. Three polls released last week found three different results.  

The DSCC has previously run coordinated ads in Arkansas, Montana and Iowa, but this is the first ad from its independent expenditure unit. The National Republican Senatorial Committee’s IE ran digital ads during the Mississippi primary, but it has not yet run TV ads.