Womack Uncertain On Race For Senate

WASHINGTON - U.S. Rep. Steve Womack said Wednesday that he’ll skip the U.S. Senate race in 2014 if another Republican with “great credentials” steps in to challenge incumbent Democrat Mark Pryor.

This spring, Womack said he’d make a decision about running by August. On Wednesday he said he still had not made a firm decision.

“If I were handicapping it, I’d say that provided another individual of great credentials surfaces - and I believe there will be one - I will be very content running for re-election and doing what I’m doing.

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/RYAN MCGEENEY --05-22-2012-- Congressional Representative Steve Womack, left, speaks with poll worker Pete Metzger of Rogers, right, after casting his ballot Tuesday afternoon at the United Methodist Church in Rogers. The church is the polling place for the 53rd voting precinct.

Without bringing up fellow Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton of Dardanelle by name, Womack said the political contours of the 2014 race have become clear.

“I haven’t definitively ruled out anything,” he continued. “It would be a little premature until that clarity is well known- but it’s getting pretty well known.” During the quarter that ended June 30, Pryor raised $1.2 million and had $3.92 million cash on hand. Cotton raised $611,341 during the same time period, finishing the quarter with$1.02 million in the bank.

Womack’s fundraising haul was lower. During the second quarter, Womack raised $228,896 and had $578,970 cash on hand.

Cotton has not announced whether he’ll run for the U.S. Senate.

His spokesman, Caroline Rabbitt, said she didn’t know when he would make a decision.

“He’s focused these next two weeks on the House,” which plans to go into its summer recess Aug. 2 , she said. “I can’t say specifically about what timeline he may have.”

Womack said Cotton would make a formidable challenger.

“He’s an accomplished young man, he has a unique national profile and a capacity to raise money beyond the borders of our state,” Womack said. “All the fundamentals are there for Tom to be a very impressive and very imposing candidate for U.S. Senate should he run.”

Womack gave several reasons why a campaign for Senate would be difficult for him.

The fact that he represents Sen. John Boozman’s home district would be a “distraction,” he said. Both Womack and Boozman, also a Republican, are from Rogers.

“Politically, I think a lot of Arkansans would be averse to having both of their U.S. Senators hailing from one area,” he said.

He says he’s also reluctant to give up his seat on the powerful House Appropriations Committee.

Although the House no longer allows “earmarks” that once allowed legislators to steer money to their pet projects in large spending bills, Womack said he’s been able to use his spot on the committee to help get money to properly clean an abandoned educational nuclear facility called the SEFOR reactor in his district and to finance a change of mission for the 188th Air Wing of the Air National Guard in Fort Smith.

“The more I do this work, the more beneficial to the state and to my district I think I can be,” Womack said. “I like the energy of the House.”