Dem poll: Pryor up in Arkansas

Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) has a small lead over Rep. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), according to a new poll conducted for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

{mosads}Pryor leads Cotton by 46 percent to 43 percent in the poll, conducted for the DSCC’s independent expenditure arm by Hickman Analytics. It falls within the poll’s 3.5-percent margin of error.

This is the second time in a few weeks that a Hickman poll has shown Pryor with a small lead — they had him up by two points in a late August poll.

Publicly released internal polls should always be viewed with a bit of skepticism. The few recent nonpartisan public polls of the race have found Cotton with a small lead, and Republicans have been more bullish about the race than Democrats in recent weeks.

The live-caller poll of 801 likely voters reached on landlines and cellphones was conducted from Sept. 13-18.

Republicans need to win six seats to take the Senate majority, and Pryor has long been one of their top targets.