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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (81212)	10/27/2004 8:28:33 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793822

POLITICAL POINTS \| 10.27 5:30 PM Promises, Promises By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG - NYT Everyone knows that campaign promises get broken. But when Senator Tom Daschle, the Democratic leader who is in a tough fight for re-election in South Dakota, signed a pledge in June saying he had asked all independent groups to avoid advertising in South Dakota this year, it looked like the pledge would stick. It did, until today, when officials of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee acknowledged they have purchased television time in the state. Senator Jon Corzine, the committee chairman, said Democrats are fed up with negative advertisements being run by third-party groups, who have spent an estimated $9 million on behalf of the senator's Republican opponent, former Representative John Thune. But the final straw, Mr. Corzine said, was a series of newspaper ads the Thune campaign placed, singling out the activities of Mr. Daschle's wife, Linda, a Washington lobbyist. It's one thing to attack a candidate, Mr. Corzine said, but quite another to attack the candidate's wife. "I think it borders on irresponsibility, some might say immorality," Mr. Corzine said. "I think there is a point where we say, enough is enough." With a recent independent poll showing the race in a statistical dead heat, the ad purchase suggests Democrats are worried. Mr. Corzine said he did not want to "give any edge," adding that committee officials want to "make sure we're doing everything we can to help our leader." Under campaign finance laws, national parties cannot make "independent expenditures" in coordination with candidates, and Mr. Corzine said there had been no conversation between committee officials and the Daschle camp. He would not say how much the committee is spending; the Thune camp put the figure at $600,000. Mr. Thune refused early on to sign the Daschle pledge. He signed one in 2002, he said, when he ran against South Dakota's other Democratic senator, only to wind up on the other end of third-party attack ads. Now, his campaign is jumping on Mr. Daschle for violating his promise. "Once again, Tom Daschle says one thing in South Dakota and does another thing in Washington, D.C.," said Dick Wadhams, Mr. Thune's campaign manager, echoing a phrase his candidate has used throughout the campaign. Some might say it's a situation of the pot calling the kettle black, on both sides. With the national Democrats' impending ad campaign, Mr. Daschle can no longer lay claim to the political high road on outside advertising. Mr. Thune, though, is hardly in a position to complain about Mrs. Daschle's lobbying. His tax returns show he earned $452,000 as a lobbyist last year. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company \| Home \| Privacy Policy \| Search \| Corrections \| RSS \| Help \| Back to Top