November 4, 2002 Posted at: 9:23 p.m. CDT Updated at: 9:35 p.m. CDT

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Republicans on Monday launched a TV ad critical of Mark Pryor's hiring of a part-time housekeeper in what the Democrat said was an ``11th-hour dirty trick'' intended to cost him votes in Tuesday's U.S. Senate race against the GOP incumbent.

Polls show Pryor leading Sen. Tim Hutchinson in Arkansas ' closely watched Senate race.

The advertisement questions whether Pryor paid the Hispanic woman cash to avoid tax and Social Security obligations. Pryor said that the woman was legally entitled to work in the United States and that she did not make enough money for him to withhold taxes.

The state Republican Party and the National Republican Senatorial Committee paid for the ad, NRSC spokesman Dan Allen said. It would replace other ads scheduled to run on the final day of the campaign, said Chad Colby, a spokesman for the state Republican campaign.

Pryor said the woman worked part-time for about five months, earning $7 an hour. He called the story about the housekeeper, carried by Internet gossip columnist Matt Drudge and some cable stations Sunday, ``a shameless attack from Tim Hutchinson and his party.'' He said the quick appearance of anti-Pryor television ads proved his point.

Hutchinson said his campaign had nothing to do with the allegation, although Colby said a woman answering the telephone at Hutchinson headquarters Sunday took detailed notes from an anonymous caller and passed the information along to the GOP committee, which contacted news organizations Sunday.

The Pryor campaign was quick to take the Hutchinson camp to task over the statement by Colby.

"Tim Hutchinson has been caught in a bald-faced lie," said Pryor campaign spokesman Rodell Mollineau. "After saying that his campaign had nothing at all to do with the false accusations leveled against Mark Pryor a National Republican spokesman goes on record saying that it was the Hutchinson office that initially got the ball rolling on this smear campaign."

Hutchinson campaign spokesman Anthony Hulen said that the senator remains committed to his initial statement about the situation, and that there would be no further comment.

-- Anonymous, November 05, 2002