Daschle Unveils First Ads of Reelection Bid
URL:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35040-2003Jul9.html
By Brian Faler
Thursday, July 10, 2003; Page A06
Senate Minority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) launched the first television ads of his reelection effort yesterday, with a spot touting his support for ethanol, the corn-based fuel additive that is big business in his home state.
"Tom Daschle is close to passing new energy legislation that would triple ethanol production in South Dakota," the announcer in the ad says. "Daschle's legislation could mean as many as 10,000 new jobs," said one of the corn growers testifying in the spot on the senator's behalf. "That's very important to the state."
It's also very important to Daschle's reelection, which is expected to be hotly contested. He doesn't officially have any Republican challengers yet. But former representative John Thune, who narrowly lost his bid last year to unseat Sen. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.), is expected to join the race. President Bush won the mostly conservative state in 2000.
The ad campaign, which cost $31,000, is scheduled to run for at least two weeks in Sioux Falls. The state GOP urged Daschle to pull the spots, saying, in a statement: "Tom Daschle should give us all a break from politics -- it'll be time soon enough."
Daschle's campaign manager dismissed the complaints, saying several conservative groups, including the Club for Growth, have already run ads this year criticizing the three-term senator.
"Republicans are going to complain about anything Tom Daschle does," said Steve Hildebrand.
Democrats Lose Vote on Texas Flap
The federal government's role in May in helping Texas Republicans locate runaway Democrats will remain murky, at least for now. In a party-line vote yesterday, the House Judiciary Committee rejected a Democratic bid to compel the disclosure of new information about the use of federal resources when Texas Republicans tried to find several dozen Texas House Democrats and return them to Austin.
The Democrats had traveled to Oklahoma to prevent the GOP-controlled Texas House from having a quorum. Texas House Republicans were about to pass a congressional redistricting plan strongly favoring their party's candidates.
Yesterday's resolution called for the U.S. attorney general to divulge within two weeks records or documents related to "any use of federal agency resources" to help the Texas Republicans find and arrest the missing Democratic state lawmakers.
The Republican-drafted redistricting plan passed the Texas House this week. But controversy continues over the participation of at least one FBI agent in the hunt. Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Tex.) denounced yesterday's committee vote as "a loss for the truth," but Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) said the matter was best left to the Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General, which started its investigation last month.
U.S. to Pay Convention Security Tabs
The Homeland Security Department announced yesterday that the federal government will assume primary responsibility for security at next year's Republican National Convention.
The decision, which was not unexpected, means the Secret Service will lead security precautions for the event, where President Bush will be formally nominated as his party's 2004 presidential nominee. The event, to be held in New York, is scheduled to end shortly before the third anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The announcement also means the federal government will probably pick up much of the tab for the convention's security, although officials could not say yesterday how much. The city's host committee for the event had allocated $22 million of its $91 million budget for security.
Earlier this year, the agency said it would make similar accommodations for the Democratic National Convention, scheduled for next July in Boston.
Since 1999, the government made such arrangements for 14 events it has dubbed National Special Security Events, including the 2000 party conventions, the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and Super Bowl XXXVI.
Staff writer R. Jeffrey Smith contributed to this report.
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