Filings show Cotton owes $286,492 from ’14 election

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Sen. John Boozman has almost $875,000 in his campaign war chest -- 15 months before Election Day and before any challengers have come forward.

A fundraising report covering April 1 through June 30 due to the Federal Election Commission shows Boozman, a Republican from Rogers, began with $578,566. He raised $420,389 and spent $126,251, leaving him with $872,704 on June 30.

U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, a Republican from Dardanelle, also submitted his report, showing he is paying off debt from his 2014 campaign.

Boozman hasn't attracted a Democratic opponent so far. He said that hasn't kept him from raising money in preparation.

"We're working hard. We don't know who our opponent is going to be," Boozman said. "We're going forward assuming we're going to have a top-level opponent."

Democratic Party of Arkansas spokesman H.L. Moody said the party is still recruiting candidates before the deadline to file to run Nov. 9.

"There's still a long time between now and filing and anything can happen," he said.

Hal Bass, a political science professor at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, said it's too early to guess how much money Boozman would have to raise for re-election in the event he has a Democratic challenger.

"It's clear that the national environment is such that an incumbent senator is going to be well financed," Bass said.

He pointed to the millions spent by the campaigns in the race between Cotton and Democratic incumbent Mark Pryor in 2014. That race, which garnered national attention because the outcome helped determined which party held

majority control of the Senate, was one of the most expensive in Arkansas history.

"What happens [in] the next cycle remains to be seen," he said.

Still, Bass said incumbents like Boozman build up a war chest to discourage competition.

"The big question is what kind of Democratic challenge is going to emerge," he said. "I don't anticipate any serious intraparty challenge ... and if there is a challenge I would think it [would be] nominal."

The most recent reports were due July 15 but weren't immediately publicly available. A 1974 law that exempted Senate campaign committees from filing reports directly to the Federal Election Commission allows Senate campaign committees to give typed or handwritten paper copies of their reports to the secretary of the Senate, who sends them within two days to the commission.

The hundreds of donations to Boozman include $1,000 from Bentonville Mayor Bob McCaslin; $250 from Highway Commission Chairman Dick Trammel; $200 from Tyson Foods Inc. Vice President Clark Irwin; $250 from University of Arkansas at Fayetteville professor Robert Costrell; $1,000 from Big River Steel Chairman and CEO John Correnti of Blytheville; $2,000 from Mahco Inc. President Richard Mahan of Bentonville; and $2,500 from Lawco Exploration Chairman Randy Lawson of Bentonville.

Boozman also received donations from dozens of in-state and national political action committees, which is a group formed by an industry or issue-oriented organization to raise and contribute money to political candidates.

Those include $2,500 from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. PAC for Responsible Government; $5,000 from The Home Depot Inc. PAC; $2,500 from Murphy Oil Corp. PAC in El Dorado; $2,500 from Chevron Employees PAC in San Ramon, Calif.; $8,000 from Deloitte Federal Political Action Committee in Washington, D.C.; $2,000 from Koch Industries Inc.; $2,500 from USA Rice Federation PAC in Arlington Va.; $1,000 from Smithfield Foods Inc. PAC (the company has a Bentonville location); and $1,000 from Arkansas Rice PAC in Little Rock.

The largest single donation was $57,544 from the 2015 Senators Classic Committee, a joint fundraising committee supporting several incumbent Republican senators.

In his report, Cotton started with $77,572. He raised $191,460 and spent $155,154, leaving him with $113,878. Cotton isn't up for election until 2020.

Cotton also reported $286,492 in debt from his 2014 campaign. Much of the debt is for media advertising, shutting down the 2014 campaign and late bills sent in by vendors, Cotton's 2014 campaign manager and current Chief of Staff Doug Coutts said.

Pryor's quarterly report showed that he has nearly wrapped up matters related to the 2014 campaign. Pryor started the reporting period with $40,385. He received $1,717 for an unused media buy and spent $8,768. He had $33,334 left.