Dems running for Senate on their own in Bush states
October 17, 2004
BY DAVID ESPO
WASHINGTON -- Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle hugged President Bush from one end of South Dakota to the other this summer. In his own campaign commercials.
The brief embrace might seem an odd claim on re-election for the man Republicans depict as obstructionist-in-chief for the president's congressional agenda. But Daschle is one of several candidates with a common political problem as Democrats nurse fragile hopes of gaining Senate control this fall.
From the South to South Dakota and Alaska, they are running in areas where Bush is popular -- and Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry not so much.
"The congressman is running his own race out here. ... He's not bringing any national people in," said Kristofer Eisenla, spokesman for Democratic Rep. Brad Carson in Oklahoma, where Bush won 60 percent of the vote in 2000.
"The presidential race is largely separate" from Inez Tenenbaum's campaign in South Carolina, said Adam Kovacevich, a spokesman for the Democratic candidate in another state Kerry has written off.
Of the eight states with the most competitive Senate races, Kerry is seriously contesting only Florida and Colorado, effectively conceding North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Alaska.
'Flip-flop, flip-flop'
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has transferred millions of dollars to state parties for get-out-the-vote operations -- $1.7 million for Alaska, $1.4 million for Oklahoma and $825,000 for South Carolina.
"I think it's just an added factor to the benefit of our top-quality candidates," countered Sen. George Allen, who heads the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
Already, Allen's committee is trying to turn Kerry into a liability for one Democratic candidate.
"Flip-flop, flop-flop. Between John Kerry and Tony Knowles, there's more flip-flopping than a sockeye [salmon] in Bristol Bay," says an a Republican committee ad criticizing Alaska's former Democratic governor.
Democrats must gain two seats to be assured of a 51-vote majority in the Senate. The parties are virtually certain to swap two of the 34 seats on the ballot -- with Democrats winning an open seat in Illinois while Republicans counter in Georgia.
Of the eight seats that remain most competitive, five are in Democratic hands and three belong to Republicans, and Democrats must win seven to gain an outright majority.
South Dakota holds the marquee Senate race of the campaign, and polls show a close race between Daschle and former GOP Rep. John Thune in a state Bush carried by 22 percentage points in 2000.
The hug is a videotaped image of the embrace Daschle gave Bush when the president spoke to Congress on Sept. 20, 2001.
Daschle's spokesman, Dan Pfeiffer, said the ad's message is that he "will work with the president when the president is right but oppose him when he is wrong." Daschle's latest commercial criticizes the administration for failing to provide adequate drought relief, while faulting Thune for not standing up to Bush on the issue.
The Republican Party demanded unsuccessfully that Daschle stop airing the ad, arguing it left a false impression.
Ups, downs for both parties
Political fortunes have ebbed and flowed for both parties in the last several weeks:
*Democratic hopes of a serious challenge to Sen. Kit Bond in Missouri became a casualty of Kerry's decision to halt advertising there.
*The Republican senatorial committee reported $22.5 million cash on hand as of the end of August, compared with the Democrats' $10.5 million. Hoping to use its advantage, the GOP signaled plans to spend more than $1 million in a late bid to upset Wisconsin Sen. Russell Feingold.
*In Oklahoma, Tom Coburn, an obstetrician and former GOP House member, faces unexpected scrutiny after acknowledging that he sterilized a patient several years ago without written consent. At the same time, Carson opened a new line of attack with an ad that faults his rival for voting against federal disaster aid in the wake of 1999 tornados that killed 44 and destroyed more than 10,000 homes in the state.
*Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) appointed to her seat by her father, Gov. Frank Murkowski, has struggled against nepotism charges as well as against Knowles.
AP |
