Paul Barton of Gannett News Service looked at campaign finance figures and found that Republican Rep. Tom Cotton is leading U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor in the share of personal campaign money coming from out-of-state sources — 65 percent to 53 percent. Both sides are benefitting from out-of-state dark and independent money. To date, it appears Cotton enjoys a wide margin in anonymously sourced support, too.
Barton reports:
In all, Cotton has received $1.55 million from out-of-state individuals, compared to $849,994 from in-state contributors over the past two years. Overall, including money from political action committees and party committees as well, he raised $5.3 million through the first quarter of this year.
Four of the five largest cities for Cotton’s individual contributions are New York ($194,664), the Washington, D.C., metro area ($188,607), Chicago ($140,450) and Dallas ($95,100). His largest is Little Rock-North Little Rock ($381,827).
Pryor, in fundraising since 2009, has received $1.67 million from out-of-state individuals and $1.47 million from in-state. Overall, he has raised $8.92 million.
Pryor’s largest areas for individual contributions are Little Rock-North Little Rock ($676,630), the Washington, D.C., metro area ($495,043), Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers ($146,292), New York ($114,350) and Texarkana, Ark.-Texarkana, Texas ($74,500).
And there’s still more than five months to go.