Sen. Mark Pryor (D) Elected 2002, 1st term up 2008
Born:	Jan. 10, 1963, Fayetteville
Home:	Little Rock
Education:	U. of AR, B.A. 1985, J.D. 1988
Religion:	Christian
Marital Status:	married (Jill)
Elected  Office:	AR House of Reps., 1990-94; AR Atty. Gen., 1998-02.
Professional Career:	Practicing atty., 1988-96.
DC Office	217 RSOB20510, 202-224-2353; Fax: 202-228-0908; Web site: pryor.senate.gov
State Offices	Little Rock, 501-324-6336.
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Mark Pryor, the junior senator from Arkansas elected in 2002, is one of six children of former senators now serving in the Senate; the others are Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, Robert Bennett of Utah, Evan Bayh of Indiana, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska (Jon Kyl of Arizona is the son of a congressman; Edward Kennedy's two brothers and Elizabeth Dole's husband were senators). His grandmother, Susie Newton Pryor, was the first woman in Arkansas to run for office when women got the vote. Mark Pryor grew up in southern Arkansas, the Washington area and Little Rock: His father, David Pryor, was elected to the House in 1966, lost a Senate race in 1972 and was elected governor in 1974 and 1976 and then senator in 1978. Mark Pryor graduated from the University of Arkansas and its law school in the 1980s. He practiced law in Little Rock and was elected to the Arkansas House in 1990 and 1992; in 1998, he was elected state attorney general, at 35 the youngest attorney general in the nation (but not in Arkansas history: Bill Clinton won the office at 30). In 1995 he was diagnosed with clear-cell sarcoma, a rare form of cancer. He underwent tendon transplant surgery in his left heel in 1996; the cancer has not returned.

As attorney general, he tried to curb telemarketing and worked for "Do Not Call" legislation. He claimed to save the state $243 million in attorneys' fees in the tobacco settlement. He pushed for legislation to increase penalties for single-incident nursing home accidents (regulating nursing homes also was a big issue for young Congressman David Pryor in the 1960s) and to strengthen background checks for long-term care employees. He worked to reduce utility rates and to remove unsafe baby products from licensed day care centers. In July 2002, he filed a brief in the state Supreme Court defending Arkansas's school financing system as constitutional and urging the court to overturn a lower court ruling that some said would cost the state $800 million a year; the Supreme Court ruled against him, but not until after he was elected senator.

In July 2001, Pryor announced that he would run against Senator Tim Hutchinson, the first Republican to win an Arkansas Senate seat since 1879, who was elected in 1996 to replace the retiring David Pryor. A Baptist minister, owner of a radio station and founder of a Christian school in Rogers, Hutchinson represented that conservative area in the legislature from 1984 and then for two terms as 3d District congressman. Hutchinson's conservative voting record would ordinarily have made him a favorite for reelection. But in June 1999, Hutchinson filed for divorce from his wife of 29 years, and in August 2000, he married Randi Fredholm, a former member of his House staff. For some senators, this would not have hurt politically. But for a Christian conservative, who criticized Bill Clinton strongly during the impeachment crisis, it was a severe handicap.

Pryor never mentioned Hutchinson's divorce and remarriage and instructed his pollster not to ask questions about them. When asked about Hutchinson's marital problems, he said, "They are what they are. Let the voters decide." But one recurrent theme in his campaign was "Tim Hutchinson has changed"--even though Hutchinson's positions on issues had not changed much, if at all. Pryor campaigned on his support for Second Amendment rights, repeal of the estate tax, increased military spending and, in October, of the Iraq war resolution. In 1998, he had run as a "pro-choice" candidate, but in 2002 he emphasized his belief that abortion was wrong except in cases of rape, incest or saving the life of the mother. But he avoided saying whether or not Roe v. Wade should be overturned. He attacked Hutchinson for working for special interests, especially the pharmaceutical companies, and for supporting plans that would risk Social Security benefits; he said he was "way too conservative" for Arkansas. But he carefully avoided identification with the national Democratic party, and made a point of being unavailable and elsewhere when Clinton paid visits to the state.

Pryor's ads were some of the most artful of the 2002 cycle. One showed him, his wife and their two children saying grace before a meal. Then Pryor, holding a Bible, said, "The most important lessons in life are in this book right here." The Pryors belonged to an evangelical church in Little Rock and sent their children to a private Christian school. He turned down an invitation to appear with Hutchinson on Meet the Press, explaining that voters wouldn't be able to watch "because they're in church Sunday morning." In another ad, Jill Pryor says laughingly, "I love my husband, but he's cheap." "You know me as Arkansas Attorney General, but I'm also my father's son," said Pryor, in one ad showing him with his father. He explained that not every Democratic idea is good and not every Republican idea is bad. He asked a meeting of municipal leaders in June to pray for George W. Bush. "I think he has done a pretty good job on the war on terrorism. He has a tremendous burden, an inhuman burden."

Against these ads, the Hutchinson ads showing his walking the halls on Capitol Hill or even those showing him playing with his three-year-old grandson were no match. Bush's visits to Arkansas to campaign for Hutchinson did not succeed, as they did in other southern states, in nationalizing the race. During the campaign Randi Hutchinson said, "I just think when a person goes into the voting booth, they look at issues that affect them and not someone else's personal life." But Pryor pulled ahead in polls in mid-year and never really fell behind. On the Sunday before the election, a story broke that the Pryors had employed an illegal immigrant. Pryor campaign aides found the woman that night; they persuaded her to sign an affidavit that she had been asked whether she was a legal immigrant and had said she was, and provided documents proving that. They went over to her house and photocopied a Social Security and regular resident card and provided them to the press. Two days after the election, the woman told Little Rock's El Latino that she had signed the affidavit under pressure and denied that she had provided documents to the Pryors when she was hired. The story seems to have had little effect, and the generally anti-Democratic Arkansas Democrat-Gazette treated it lightly. In any case, Pryor won 54%-46%, a solid victory in a year when Democrats lost their majority in the Senate. A survey by pollster John Zogby showed that 12% said Hutchinson's divorce affected their vote--enough by itself to explain his drop from 53% in 1996 to 46% in 2002. Hutchinson's losses were particularly great in his home area. In 1996, he had won 65%-35% in the current 3d Congressional District; in 2002, he carried the 3d District by only 56%-44%.

Pryor entered the Senate ranked 100th in seniority. He got a seat on the Governmental Affairs Committee, on which his father had served. With his senior colleague Blanche Lincoln, he was one of five Democrats voting to uphold George W. Bush's repeal of the Clinton New Source Review EPA regulations. But he voted against oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. In March 2003 he voted for the partial-birth abortion ban and supported an amendment, which failed, granting an exception if the mother's physical health is at risk. He opposed an amendment by Dianne Feinstein that would allow an exception for a mother's mental health. He also voted against a resolution supporting Roe v. Wade. He supported the filibuster of the judicial nomination of Miguel Estrada and others, but voted for Timothy Tymkovich for the 10th Circuit and, with Lincoln, supported Arkansan Leon Holmes for the 8th Circuit. At the all-night judicial filibuster in November 2003 he read from Robert Caro's Master of the Senate at 3 a.m. He voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment in July 2004, explaining that it's an issue that should be left to the states, but supported the amendment on the ballot in November 2004 banning same-sex marriage in Arkansas.

In 2003 Pryor voted against the omnibus appropriations bill which contained $300 million for Arkansas projects and against the $350 billion Bush tax cut. "I just can't support these budgets that send our deficits and national debt soaring out of control." He opposed the Bush Medicare/prescription drug bill. He attended hearings diligently on the Armed Services Committee and expressed concern that the National Guard was being overworked. He had success sponsoring a bill to allow combat pay to be considered as taxable income in calculating the earned income tax and child tax credits; this had the effect of lowering soldiers' taxes. He took care to get Charles Grassley and Max Baucus of the Finance Committee as co-sponsors; the bill passed. He also passed in the Senate a bill to help families get thorough information quickly about family members wounded in combat. And he used the Armed Services seat to push a nanotechnology initiative, with emphasis on Arkansas. He lost his seat after Democrats lost seats on the committee after the 2004 election: he called it "an involuntary departure."

Pryor is one of four Democratic senators from the South and seems acutely aware of the party's weakness in his region. On the issue of guns, he told the Democratic Leadership Conference, "Silence is an admission of guilt. If you don't talk about what your position is on guns, guess what? You're for gun control." He endorsed John Kerry in June 2004, months after he clinched the Democratic nomination, and suggested he go hunting in Arkansas. He admitted that the two "have a little different approach on some issues. But I'm comfortable with him as a person and a leader." Pryor comes up for reelection in 2008.

Committees

• Commerce, Science & Transportation: Aviation; Consumer Affairs, Product Safety & Insurance (RMM); Science & Space; Surface Transportation & Merchant Marine; Technology, Innovation & Competitiveness; Trade, Tourism & Economic Development.
• Ethics (Select).
• Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs: Investigations (Permanent); Oversight of Govt. Management, the Federal Workforce & the District of Columbia.
• Small Business & Entrepreneurship.

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2004	85	56	86	67	92	13	71	20	13	16	--
2003	70	--	100	42	--	19	61	30	--	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2003 LIB	--	2003 CONS		2004 LIB	--	2004 CONS
Economic	62%	--	37%		56%	--	43%
Social	55%	--	44%		56%	--	42%
Foreign	60%	--	35%		67%	--	31%
For National Journal's complete 2004 Vote Ratings, as well as previous ratings dating back to 1995, please click here.

Key Votes Of The 108th Congress (More Info)
1. Ban Drilling in ANWR Y 2. Approve Bush Tax Cuts N 3. Medicare/Rx Bill N 4. Bar Overtime Pay Regs. Y 5. Energy Bill Y 6. Support Roe v. Wade N		7. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion Y  8. Assault Weapons Ban Y  9. Ban Same-Sex Marriage N 10. Ban Bunker-Buster Bomb Y 11. Fund Iraq War Y 12. Restrict Missile Defense Y

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2002 general	Mark Pryor (D)	434,890	54%	$4,414,148
	Tim Hutchinson (R)	369,069	46%	$5,063,923
2002 primary	Mark Pryor (D)	unopposed
1996 general	Tim Hutchinson (R)	445,942	53%	$1,604,014
	Winston Bryant (D)	400,241	47%	$1,577,838