Peter Urban of Stephens Media’s Washington Bureau reports that TV spending in the Pryor-Cotton race for U.S. Senate has hit almost $20 million.
With spending in the last week alone of $2.4 million and more tha three weeks of spending to go, $30 million seems a likely total.
And this is only TV spending. Who knows how much has been spent plastering Tom Cotton’s picture on virtually every web portal hit by an Arkansan? Or radio advertising? Or direct mail? Or the extensive get-out-the-vote campaigns? Or the Koch boys’ permanent anti-Democrat campaign operation in Arkansas, Americans for Prosperity?
TV is just part of a very large iceberg of cold, hard cash.
Oh. Urban notes that the Arkansas Senate race isn’t nearly the most expensive — it ranks 7th nationally. In the last week, Republicans outspent Democrats in Arkansas, contrary to the pattern elsewhere in pivotal Senate races.
In case you don’t have a TV, the messages are simple.
Obama versus extremism.
Republicans are betting that hatred of the president in Arkansas will trump all the solid evidence of Cotton’s desire to damage popular government programs that are valuable in a poor, rural state — farm subsidies, student loans, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, nutrition, Children’s Hospital.