Daschle Has Race on His Hands and Interloper on His Turf
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG - NYT
SIOUX FALLS, S.D., May 22 - The bare-knuckle partisanship that divides Capitol Hill came to this sparsely populated state on Saturday, as Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee, the Republican leader, took the unusual step of campaigning against his Democratic counterpart, Tom Daschle, on Mr. Daschle's home turf.
"I'm here in South Dakota because I love John Thune," Dr. Frist declared, with Mr. Daschle's Republican opponent, former Representative John Thune, standing by his side after the pair toured Ellsworth Air Force Base in Rapid City. Dr. Frist said Mr. Thune "would be a perfect United States senator to serve the people of South Dakota."
The much-anticipated campaign swing on behalf of Mr. Thune, a close ally of President Bush's who two years ago lost by just 524 votes to Tim Johnson, South Dakota's other Democratic senator, puts a national spotlight on a race that is widely expected to be the most expensive and competitive Senate contest this year.
It also underscores the closely divided nature of the Senate, where Republicans, with 51 seats, are determined to strengthen their slim majority and Democrats are fighting hard to win back control. About 10 Senate seats are expected to be competitive this year, and the South Dakota race could determine control of the chamber, a point Dr. Frist made Saturday to deflect criticism of his trip while taking a not-so-subtle dig at Mr. Daschle.
"It may be rare, but these are rare times," he said. By that, Dr. Frist said he meant it was rare to have a party leader "not be very strongly supported by people in their home state."
Throughout the day, first at the Air Force base, then at a rural health center, and at a fund-raising dinner in Sioux Falls, Dr. First derided what he called the obstructionism of Senate Democrats, though he shied away from mentioning Mr. Daschle by name.
At the dinner before an enthusiastic audience of 600, Mr. Thune summed up the race this way: "We need a senator who will listen to the voice of the people of South Dakota and not to the voice of the liberal Democratic Caucus in Washington.''
Mr. Daschle did not respond directly, but his campaign spokesman, Dan Pfeiffer, issued a statement saying, "John Thune's campaign coffers may be richer because of this visit, but South Dakota has gained nothing." He added, "It makes no sense to replace the minority leader with a freshman senator."
Rarely do Senate leaders face stiff competition at home. Speaker Thomas S. Foley of Washington famously lost his seat when Republicans took control of the House in 1994; the last time a Senate party leader lost a bid for re-election was in 1952, when Senator Ernest McFarland, the Democratic leader, lost to Barry M. Goldwater, the Arizona Republican.
Even so, Democrats in Washington and also independent scholars say that the majority leader is violating an unwritten Senate code not to campaign against another leader. In South Dakota, a recent independent poll suggests that the Daschle-Thune race is too close to call. The survey, published Thursday by The Argus Leader, the statewide newspaper, found Mr. Daschle leading Mr. Thune 49 percent to 47 percent. Earlier in the week, the Daschle campaign put out its own poll showing the senator leading 55 percent to 42 percent - a finding dismissed as overly optimistic by Charlie Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan newsletter.
"You'd have to give Daschle an edge, but boy, this is going to be an extremely close race," Mr. Cook said. Mr. Daschle, he said, "is the only elected incumbent in the entire U.S. Senate that you could say is in serious trouble."
Mr. Thune, 43, served three terms in the House before losing to Mr. Johnson. He has the advantage of being a Republican in a state where Mr. Bush enjoys broad support. But Mr. Daschle is playing up his influence as a minority leader who can use his position in Washington to put issues important to South Dakota - like the labeling of beef products with country of origin - on the national agenda.
Dr. Frist's visit, which was to conclude with a second fund-raising dinner in Rapid City, is part of a swing he is making through a half-dozen states. Whether it will help Mr. Thune or backfire is a matter of intense dispute between the camps.
The visit comes just as the Senate race is beginning to heat up. On June 1, South Dakotans will vote in a primary to fill the House seat vacated by Bill Janklow, the former congressman who resigned after he was convicted of manslaughter in a traffic accident. The Thune campaign has said it will begin television advertisements after the House race between the Democratic candidate, Stephanie Herseth, and the Republican candidate, Larry Diedrich.
Mr. Daschle has already spent $6.5 million since January 2003, including more than $1 million on television advertisements that have been running since last July. The Thune campaign, which has raised $1.4 million in the last six weeks alone, expects to raise a total of $6 million.
Beyond his visit to South Dakota, Dr. Frist has also held several fund-raisers for Mr. Thune, and his political action committee has so far steered $156,000 in contributions to the Thune campaign.
Recently, the majority leader sent out a letter on Mr. Thune's behalf, telling donors, "If you can only make one more contribution to one of our Republican Senate candidates this election cycle, you should make that gift to John Thune!"
The letter irked Mr. Daschle. "The tone of the letter was very caustic and very hyperbolic and unnecessary," he said in a recent interview in the Capitol. He said it strained relations between the men for a few days but insisted that the visit to South Dakota was not altering their ability to manage the Senate.
"He knows and I know that in this building we have to work together," Mr. Daschle said.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company |
