Cotton backs Arkansas minimum wage increase

Rep. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) is backing a state proposal to increase Arkansas’s minimum wage, a move that could muddle a major attack from Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.).

{mosads}”I’m going to vote for that initiated act as a citizen, but as Arkansas’s next United States senator I’m going to make sure that we have a healthy economy, not the kind of minimum-wage economy that Barack Obama and Mark Pryor have created. The minimum wage should be a floor and a stepping stone to higher-wage jobs, not a ceiling,” Cotton told conservative radio host Alice Stewart when asked about the state initiative.

The announcement means Pryor and Cotton now hold the same position: Opposition to raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10, as President Obama has called for, but support for raising the state minimum wage to $8.25 an hour.

Pryor has previously criticized Cotton for declining to take a stance on the state push, and Cotton’s comments remove minimum wage as a wedge issue for him just days after the measure officially qualified for the ballot.

Democrats remain hopeful, however, that having the increase on the ballot could help boost Democratic turnout in the state.

Recent polls show a close race between the two men, with more giving Cotton a slight edge.