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took our country to the brink of default," a television ad Pryor is airing in Arkansas says.
• At the same time, Pryor is casting himself as willing to work with the GOP to solve the nation's woes, with his campaign highlighting his work with a bipartisan group of senators that met to negotiate an end to the shutdown.
• "He's a problem solver. Tom Cotton was part of the problem," Pryor campaign manager Jeff Weaver said.
• Getting Arkansas voters to agree likely will be difficult. Counter to national sentiment, a University of Arkansas poll released this week showed more likely voters in the state blaming Democrats than Republicans for the shutdown. The same poll, taken during the final days of the shutdown, also showed approval numbers for Pryor and Republican Sen. John Boozman both falling to 34 percent among likely voters.
• "You can see our federal figures taking it on the chin as a consequence," said Janine Parry, a political science professor at the University of Arkansas and the director of the school's Arkansas Poll.
• Cotton and other Republicans, however, are trying to shift the shutdown talk back to the health care law. Cotton, who has targeted Pryor over his vote for the overhaul in 2010, has criticized Pryor and the Democratic Senate for not supporting House-backed proposals to re-open government in exchange for concessions on the health law -- including delaying its implementation.
• "My only regret about those votes before the shutdown is the Senate Democrats so stubbornly refused to accept even modest changes to Obamacare," Cotton said.
• Republicans are also focusing on the computer problems that frustrated many trying to sign up for coverage under the health law. The glitches have prompted Pryor and other Democrats to call for extending the signup period for insurance under the law.
• Democrats show no signs of letting up with the focus on the shutdown's impact, with a publicity blitz that included sending Cotton a $24 billion "invoice," a Standard & Poor's estimate of what the shutdown cost the economy. They also believe it could lead to more gains, with former Federal Emergency Management Director James Lee Witt weighing a bid for Cotton's south Arkansas House seat.
• "People who were watching it got really concerned and that's getting out there to regular working class folks...I don't think it's going away," state Democratic Party Chairman Vince Insalaco said.
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