Cotton, Jeffress run for Ark. 4th District seat

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - The pending retirement of Arkansas' only Democratic congressman has opened up a race between two starkly different candidates: a 35-year-old Republican political newcomer who's managed to raise more money than the state's other GOP House members and a 64-year-old veteran of the state Legislature who's spent much of his campaign money on gas for the truck he travels around the sprawling district.

Republican Tom Cotton and Democrat Gene Jeffress also view each other in charged terms. Cotton, an Army veteran and former management consultant, calls Jeffress a "big government liberal." Jeffress, a state senator and former schoolteacher, bluntly calls Cotton an "outsider" to the district.

The two are running to replace Democratic Rep. Mike Ross in Arkansas' 4th District, which stretches through most of south Arkansas and into the Republican-friendly northwest portion of the state. Ross announced last year that he would not seek re-election to the district he's represented since 2000, raising Republican hopes for a sweep of the state's four congressional districts.

Ross says running in the sprawling, 33-county district is akin to a statewide campaign, with four of the state's five television markets touching portions of the 4th District.

"It makes it the most expensive district to run, and it played into my decision not to run again.... You'd love to look them all in the eye and ask for their vote, but mathematically and geographically it's impossible to do," Ross said.

Cotton's campaign organization and fundraising advantage addresses that challenge. Cotton, who announced his candidacy the day Ross said he wouldn't run again, has raised nearly $2 million in his bid for Ross' seat and has blanketed the district with television advertisements. He's also enjoyed the backing of prominent Republicans such as U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona and conservative groups such as the Club for Growth and Tea Party Express.

It's a far cry from Jeffress' cash-strapped operation, which the legislator points to as a badge of honor. Jeffress has raised less than $84,000 in his bid for the seat, and reporting having a little more than $12,000 in the bank at the end of September. He didn't have a campaign website until after he won his party's nomination, and doesn't have any campaign staff.

"How much money does it take to run for Congress? Does it take $3 million dollars?" Jeffress said. "That's basically a lot of what this election is about."

Cotton said the race is about far more than the money he's raised.

"The race is about repealing Obamacare, addressing our debt crisis and restoring America's strength and leadership abroad," Cotton said. "In terms of the money I've raised, I'm very grateful for the support I've received, in whatever form, whether it's financial or time or volunteer work. We've worked very hard to recruit every bit of support we need for a winning campaign."

The race also includes Green Party nominee Joshua Drake and Libertarian Bobby Tullis.

Cotton is running on many of the same themes that have helped Republicans make gains in Arkansas in recent years, including a vow to repeal the federal health care law. Cotton said he thinks it's possible to repeal most of the law even if President Barack Obama is re-elected and Democrats retain control of the Senate.

"If we can't repeal it entirely, then do everything we can to stop the worst effects or the worst parts of it from going into effect and distorting the market for health care and health insurance any further," Cotton said.

Jeffress said he's opposed to repeal and, after initially saying he didn't know how he would have voted on the legislation, said he likely would have supported it if he were in Congress when it passed two years ago. Ross won re-election two years ago after voting against the law and has voted with Republicans to repeal the overhaul.

Jeffress praised the law for allowing parents to keep their children on their insurance longer and for barring insurance companies from denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions. He said the requirement to have insurance makes him uneasy, but is not sure how to keep the law intact without that mandate.

"I know to make it work, to make it viable, the mandate part is going to have to be in there similar to what it is for Social Security," Jeffress said. "People have to pay into it."

The two also split on earmarking, the practice of lawmakers inserting money for home-state projects such as road and bridge work into spending bills. Congress in 2010 placed a moratorium on earmarks, following public outrage over a 2005 transportation bill stuffed with money for thousands of pet projects, including the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere" in Alaska.

Cotton said he supports the ban and says he wants Congress to make it permanent.

"They're not there to benefit constituents," Cotton said. "They're there to benefit politicians who are trying to reward a very specific and isolated constituency, but not the broad base of their constituency as a whole."

Jeffress said he thinks the district has been hurt by the earmark moratorium and supports lifting it. He compared the federal earmarks to Arkansas' General Improvement Fund - state surplus money that legislators and the governor divide up for various one-time projects. The Arkansas Legislature changed the way it used GIF money, however, after the state Supreme Court in 2006 ruled that the funds could not go to strictly local projects.

"I want us to be reasonable and sensible about it, but I think it's a way for tax dollars to come back home," Jeffress said.

The two have clashed recently after Jeffress said last month he didn't know what else Cotton would have had to run on if he wasn't an Army veteran. Jeffress said he wasn't trying to demean his rival's military record.

"Give me something else besides being a veteran that you've got to run on," Jeffress said. "Again, being a veteran is very important. I don't discount that at all."

Cotton accused Jeffress of confusing the race with a "resume contest," and said he's running on his ideas for improving the district, not solely on his military record.

"They're not points on a resume," Cotton said. "They're significant differences that the people of our district are going to vote on and evaluate on Nov. 6."

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