Oct 29, 5:08 PM EDT
Daschle in Tough, Costly Election Fight
By CHET BROKAW
Associated Press Writer
REDFIELD, S.D. (AP) -- In the nation's most dramatic - and most expensive Senate race - Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota is scrambling to maintain his political life in a state where Republicans say the Democrat is out of touch with people in a state that solidly supports President Bush.
Daschle and Republican John Thune had spent $26.3 million, more than $50 apiece for each of the state's 502,000 registered voters, as of mid-October. That doesn't include the millions of dollars being spent by outside groups, most of them opposed to Daschle.
The race is a dead heat. In many ways it is a rerun of Thune's first try for the Senate in 2002, when he lost by just 524 votes to Tim Johnson, South Dakota's other Democratic senator. That race was seen by many as a surrogate battle between Daschle and Bush, who helped recruit Thune.
Daschle, however, is a much juicier target as the one of the most visible Democrats in government and as the one in the best tactical position to block Bush's initiatives in a Senate now divided 51-49 in favor of the GOP. Of the eight or nine pivotal races determining which party will control the Senate next year, this one is the most watched.
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http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/SENATE_SOUTH_DAKOTA?SITE=SCCOL&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULTMods: I had no idea where to put this. It's a brand-new story, but hardly latest or breaking, so I didn't put it in LBN. It's a campaign story but not THE campaign, so GD:C didn't seem appropriate; also it would have been buried in 10 minutes. If you'd like to move it to the SD forum, it's ok by me.
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