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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RON BL who wrote (310103)	10/21/2002 2:50:50 PM
From: Knighty Tin	Respond to of 769670

Ron, If they have another debate scheduled, I can see them turning it down. If not, I would wonder what they're hiding.

To: RON BL who wrote (310103)	10/21/2002 5:29:19 PM
From: Glenn Petersen	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Lautenberg ducking Forrester: No debate in topsy-turvy New Jersey Senate race Mainstream voters could be turned off by campaign dramas cnn.allpolitics.printthis.clickability.com SOUTH ORANGE, New Jersey (Reuters) --Election Day is only two weeks away, but former Sen. Frank Lautenberg says it's too early for him to debate Republican Douglas Forrester in New Jersey's topsy-turvy Senate race. The 78-year-old Democrat, who retired in 2000 after 18 years in the Senate, returned to politics only three weeks ago, when the state's Supreme Court ruled he could replace scandal-plagued Sen. Robert Torricelli on the November 5 ballot. "I've been out of circulation for two years," the white-haired grandfather said in an interview after a campaign stop at an Irish pub in this wealthy New York suburb. "I really think it's important that I touch base with people in the flesh, before they see me on TV in a debate." But Forrester, who has bashed Lautenberg as soft on defense and national security, says his opponent wants to duck a debate amid polls showing the Democrat with a lead. "A lot of the things that have happened in this campaign have been pretty screwy," Forrester, 49, said in an interview. "But the crowning event for me is that he's hiding. It truly is the most shameless thing we have ever seen." Polls have shown Lautenberg in front of Forrester by eight to 12 percentage points and making large gains among women. Lautenberg's poll standing revived Democratic hopes of retaining the seat, one of the key battles in the Democratic fight to hold a shaky one-seat majority in the Senate. Torricelli was 13 points behind Forrester, a neophyte in statewide politics, before the one-term Democrat dropped out of the race September 30 amid corruption allegations and a rebuke from the Senate ethics committee for accepting illegal gifts. His dramatic departure sparked a weeklong legal battle that ended only when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to intervene on behalf of Republicans, who had opposed Lautenberg's entry. "Getting a campaign up and running in 30 days is unprecedented for a Senate race in New Jersey," said Tom Giblin, a state Democratic heavyweight and union leader who hopes a unified labor vote will ensure Lautenberg's victory. Lautenberg and Forrester, both millionaire businessmen, could spend upward of $15 million overall -- far less than the $60 million state campaign spending record set in 2000 by Democratic Sen. Jon Corzine, a former chief of Goldman Sachs. With many New Jersey voters still saying they don't know much about Forrester, analysts believe Democrats are hoping to starve the Republican campaign of publicity by postponing televised debates until a November 2 forum on New York's WNBC-TV. Playing an incumbent's game? "Lautenberg's playing an incumbent's game. He's trying to run out the clock," said Jennifer Duffy, political analyst for the Washington-based Cook Political Report. What Republicans bitterly call the "Torricelli-Lautenberg switcheroo" pulled the rug from under Republican strategists who had positioned Forrester mainly as the guy who was running against the increasingly unpopular Torricelli. The first Republican television ad since Torricelli left the race showed the party slow to change tack. It featured a frustrated student and a kid losing at basketball who throw up their hands and ask if Lautenberg can take their place. Forrester, a former mayor of West Windsor, New Jersey, has since come out swinging -- casting Lautenberg as a liberal who is soft on defense and national security and stressing the Democrat's vote against the 1991 Gulf War resolution. But analysts said Lautenberg could have better success with his attacks on Forrester's opposition to gun control, accusing the Republican of being in lock-step with the National Rifle Association at a time when a sniper is terrorizing the suburbs of Washington, D.C. In a state plagued by a large number of Superfund cleanup sites, Lautenberg also has charged Forrester with wanting to let corporate polluters off the hook and make taxpayers foot the bill for costly environmental cleanups. Democrats have been selective about Lautenberg's public appearances amid questions over how much energy and stamina the political veteran has. At a rally at Cryan's bar and restaurant in South Orange, a jovial Lautenberg pumped his fist in the air and beamed a toothy smile at a small cheering crowd. But during his remarks, the Democrat's self-assurance gave way to rambling at times, drawing distracted looks from the audience. In New Jersey, long known for outlandish party political maneuvers, mainstream voters could be turned off by this year's campaign dramas, leaving the party's traditional hard-core supporters to battle it out, Rider University professor David Rebovich said. "It's a crazy one. But this isn't good crazy; it's bad crazy," said Rebovich, who predicts turnout could fall below 40 percent even as the nation confronts a host of important issues from the slack economy to a possible war with Iraq. "If that happens, then turnout is likely to favor the Democrats' larger base. But for all the wrong reasons." Copyright 2002 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.