The National Republican Senatorial Committee is launching Web ads attacking Sens. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) and Mark Begich (D-Alaska) for perceived slights to military service, calling them “unacceptable.”
{mosads}”From Arkansas to Alaska, Democrats are attacking a noble act: Military service. And it’s simply unacceptable,” the ad says.
Republicans have been hammering Pryor for his comments that his opponent, Rep. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), feels entitled to his seat because of his military service.
“I think that’s part of this sense of entitlement that he gives off, it’s almost just like ‘I served my country, therefore let me into the Senate.’ That’s not how it works in Arkansas,'” Pryor said in an interview to MSNBC that the ad features.
Democrats have also attacked Alaska Senate candidate Dan Sullivan (R) as a carpetbagger — the Alaska Democratic Party and a super-PAC supporting Begich have criticized Sullivan, who is originally from Ohio, for not living in Alaska for much of the past decade.
Republicans have pushed back, pointing out that he was on active duty in the military for part of that span before serving in the George W. Bush administration.
National Republicans have been seeking to draw links between Pryor’s comments and the attacks against Sullivan to say Democrats don’t value military service.
The initial buy behind the Web ads is small — just four figures. The NRSC plans to target websites with large readerships of military veterans and seniors. Both states have large populations of military vets.