Little Rock, Ark., April 13 — Senator Tim Hutchinson has a problem.

In 1996 when he first ran for the Senate, he styled himself as a conservative, family-values Republican,
an ideological approach intended to appeal to this state's many Christian-right voters. The breakdown
of the American family, he said, was a critical national issue.

Mr. Hutchinson won fairly comfortably, with 53 percent of the vote, the first Republican since
Reconstruction to capture a Senate seat in heavily Democratic Arkansas.

Now Mr. Hutchinson, a Southern Baptist minister, is seeking a second term, running against a popular
Democrat, State Attorney General Mark Pryor.

Again, Mr. Hutchinson is identifying himself as a conservative, family-values Republican. The problem
is that in 1999 Mr. Hutchinson, now 52, divorced his wife of 29 years, Donna, with whom he had three
sons, and shortly afterward married a former member of his office staff, Randi Fredholm, now 39.

Many of Mr. Hutchinson's most committed supporters, the core of any strong campaign, were
disturbed by his divorce and remarriage.

His poll numbers have slipped as the issue has been raised anew during this election year, though he has
publicly apologized to his supporters, telling them that he remains a totally committed family-values man
who has been "humbled" and "left less smug about the shortcomings of others" by the breakup of his
marriage.

At the same time, Mr. Pryor, 39, the son of former Senator David Pryor, one of Arkansas's most
beloved Democratic icons, has seen his poll numbers improve, and the race is essentially too close to
call.

As a result, it has become one of the half-dozen most closely watched races in this year's struggle for
control of the Senate.

The Cook Political Report, a widely read nonpartisan publication that tracks Congressional elections,
labels the race "very competitive." Another closely followed elections publication, The Rothenberg
Political Report, also nonpartisan, calls it a tossup.

But Mr. Hutchinson is also facing an opponent in the Republican primary on May 21. He is State
Representative Jim Bob Duggar, another conservative Southern Baptist. Mr. Duggar says he was
"called by God" to run against Mr. Hutchinson.

Mr. Duggar, 36, the father of 13 children ("14, really, since my wife is pregnant and life begins at
conception"), is not regarded as a serious threat to Mr. Hutchinson's renomination. But he is something
of an embarrassment, given that very few other senators up for re-election this year have primary
challengers. Further, Republicans who abandon Mr. Hutchinson for Mr. Duggar in May may not return
to him in November, if they go to the polls at all.

At a Duggar rally a few nights ago, Rod Castle, an advertising sales representative who said he voted
for Mr. Hutchinson in 1996, said he would vote for Mr. Duggar this year.

"Tim's lost my support," Mr. Castle said. "For a man to leave his wife and marry a staff member, there
has to be underlying things in his character."

Senator Hutchinson was a vocal critic of his fellow Arkansan, President Bill Clinton, in the Monica
Lewinsky scandal and, with his brother, Asa, then a Republican member of the House, strongly
supported impeachment. When Mr. Hutchinson's divorce and relationship with Ms. Fredholm became
news, Democrats called him a hypocrite, though he said his personal situation did not resemble Mr.
Clinton's.

Both national parties have become involved in the Arkansas contest. President Bush and Vice
President Cheney have held fund-raisers for Mr. Hutchinson. Top Democrats in Washington have
promised Mr. Pryor money and workers.

Mr. Pryor and Mr. Hutchinson expect to spend as much as $10 million each by Election Day.

Mr. Pryor is a moderate. He opposes privatizing Social Security, is against new tax breaks for big
corporations unless small businesses also get them and would not make abortion a litmus test for
judicial appointments.

He contends that Mr. Hutchinson, who strongly supports most of the Bush administration's agenda,
especially its opposition to abortion, is "way too conservative for Arkansas," a state that is
geographically in the South but has a populist-progressive streak. When he speaks of Mr. Hutchinson's
marital problems, Mr. Pryor says: "They are what they are. Let the voters decide."

Mr. Pryor and his wife, Jill, have two children. The Pryors' 10-year-old marriage is the first for each.

Mr. Hutchinson contends that Mr. Pryor is "out of Arkansas's political mainstream" and does not have
the experience or stature to represent the state when the nation is "in a war with global terrorism and
just beginning to recover from economic hard times."

Some top State Republican Party officials argue that "the only thing Mark Pryor has going is David
Pryor." In fact, Mr. Pryor's campaign advertising includes plenty of images of his father.

Since Mr. Pryor entered the race, he has seldom trailed Mr. Hutchinson by more than a few points in
the polls and has been a couple of points ahead a few times. Still, analysts say the race is far from over.

"Ultimately, Hutchinson probably has a bit of an edge in this contest," said Art English, a political
scientist at the Little Rock campus of the University of Arkansas. "But he also has that serious divorce
problem. So a win is by no means out of reach for Pryor."