David Pryor, a former U.S. senator and Arkansas governor, said Wednesday that his son, U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., should be re-elected because the state needs a steady voice and a person who believes things can get done regardless of party affiliation.
David Pryor, who served as the state's 39th governor from January 1975 until January 1979, and U.S. senator from January 1979 through January 1997, and his wife, Barbara, have once again taken to the campaign trail on behalf of their son.
Mark Pryor, 51, Arkansas' senior U.S. senator, seeks a third term. He faces U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton, R-District 4, Nathan LaFrance, a Libertarian, and Mark H. Swaney, of the Green party, in the Nov. 4 general election.
"Mark's entire adult life has been committed to public service. When he was in the state Legislature, when he was the attorney general for the state and when he's been involved in the U.S. Senate, he has never at any time had any accusations raised against him to question his ethics, morality, or commitment to the state of Arkansas or its service," David Pryor said during an interview with The Sentinel-Record.
Pryor said he believes his son looks at the state, not as a red or blue state, but a red, white, and blue state and the country as a red, white, and blue country.
"I think he practices this on a daily basis in his personal life and public life and is committed to this state. I think he is a listener and deserves to be re-elected to the U.S. Senate," Pryor said.
Pryor said it would also be a benefit to return someone to the Senate who has a proven, solid record.
"Mark is not a showboat. He's a workhorse and works for the people of Arkansas and cares about this state and I think the people, when the election rolls around, will make their decision. Arkansas voters are very independent and will make up their own minds in this case as they have in the past," Pryor said.
Pryor said he and his wife, Barbara, decided to help their son's campaign team lay the infrastructure for the coming months leading up to the Nov. 4 election, especially the critical time period between Labor Day and Nov. 4.
"That's normally when political campaigns begin, but this one started much earlier -- probably a year ago, because of the stakes, the closeness of the race, the huge amounts of money that have come into the state, and the issues at stake in this race are enormous, and the race is being watched by the entire country, especially in Washington, D.C.," he said.
"We believe that people are looking for authenticity more than anything else today and we believe in old-fashioned campaigning -- asking people for their vote, walking around (public) squares, drug stores, sale barns, whatever, and simply saying, 'Our son, Mark Pryor, is running for re-election and would like for you to consider him.' That's what we'll be doing the rest of the month on week days," Pryor said.
In regards to the allegations voiced by a Mayflower businessman whose business was destroyed in the April tornadoes that Mark Pryor's campaign misled him as to the nature of an ad that was filmed on his property, David Pryor said he did not know the details of what led to the allegations.
"The only thing I know is that I was at a dinner in Conway about a month after the storms and the mayors of Vilonia and Mayflower were there and as I was leaving, the mayor of Mayflower said Mark had been there the morning after the storms hit and came back the next day and helped someone restock their store, and then said, 'You know, we've never heard from Tom Cotton.' That's all I know about it other than what I've read in the newspapers, " David Pryor said.
While noting that this campaign has been going on for some time, Pryor said campaigns today last too long.
"We need shorter campaigns, but how do you do that and come up against the freedom of speech argument? The courts have ruled in several cases that you can't limit freedom of speech to that extent, but I wish we had a shorter campaign period," he said.
In addition, he said he would like to see more disclosure of campaign contributions.
"I wish we had more accountability in campaign financing. I think eventually what is going to happen in the campaign financing realm is that we're going to see an enormous, cataclysmic, I might say, scandal that will force Congress, as they did after the Watergate hearings, to do something about campaign finance reform.
"We've seen about $11 million that's been spent thus far in anti-Mark Pryor ads and about 70 percent of that comes from out of state," David Pryor said.
"These are out-of-state interests -- the Koch brothers, Karl Rove and other groups of like-minded folks who truly think they can come to Arkansas sort of as a cheap date because our television rates are much lower than they might find in Texas, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, or anywhere else," he said.
Pryor said these out-of-state interests seem to think they can spend relatively few dollars here and have a voice in the Senate.
"But, Arkansas voters are very independent and I think they will demonstrate their independence once again, listen to all the arguments, and then make up their minds," he said.
As to Mark Pryor's vote on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, David Pryor said his son has never run from the fact that he voted for the Affordable Care Act.
"Here we are 70 or 80 years into Social Security and we're still amending and changing Social Security, and probably 50 years from now we'll still be changing it. We'll be changing the Affordable Care Act the same way," Pryor said.
Noting that there are some good parts to the Affordable Care Act, such as keeping children on the parent's insurance policy until they reach 26 years of age, Pryor said "that is a very positive step in the right direction."
"Right now in the state of Arkansas, because of the leadership of Gov. (Mike) Beebe, and the state Legislature, in combination with the Democratic and Republican coalition that Gov. Beebe and the speaker of the House put together, we're seeing now about 180,000 to 185,000 people who have insurance today that didn't two years ago," he said.
Pryor said he hopes there is still enough "stability, common sense and trust in our system in Washington, D.C., for people to get together and work on compromises and make things happen."
"Compromise is not bad. If it had not been for compromise, we wouldn't have had Medicare, Medicaid, the Marshall Plan, or the GI Bill. We would not have had those great, great cornerstones to our democratic system that makes us so viable and so healthy today," he said.
Pryor said Cotton and his son are very different when they look at the relationship between Medicare and the government and the people. He said Cotton has voted more than once to move the retirement age to 70, and to privatize Medicare, which would be disastrous if it occurred.
He said Cotton has voted several times to cut back benefits that Medicare would pay and would cause the premiums to go up on the portion of the population least able to afford to pay them.
"I think there is a basic philosophical difference in the way Mark Pryor looks at Medicare and health care and the way Tom Cotton looks at it," David Pryor said.
"Tom Cotton may want to talk about health care, but he doesn't want to talk about his position on health care. He has never proposed anything on health care. His is a blank slate, a blank piece of paper as to what he wants to do about the health care crisis in America. If he wants to do nothing, then he wants to turn it over -- lock, stock and barrel -- to insurance companies, and Mark Pryor doesn't want to do that," David Pryor said.
As to the tone of the campaign, Barbara Pryor said, "I don't think we've ever seen any election like this where people are making personal judgments. I don't think I've ever seen anything like that; it's not the democratic way. I don't think it's the way it was meant to be. I don't mind talking about someone's record, but when you start talking about them personally, there's a line that should not be crossed and I think it is being crossed. It may not be from his (Cotton's) campaign, but from all the outside people saying things. It's just not right."
Local on 07/10/2014