Abstract

No holiday for the busman

The article focuses on election campaign in Minnesota. Tagged embarrassingly liberal by his opponent, U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota tours the state seeking re-election on the basis of the principles. The antiliberal pummeling-much of it paid for by the National Republican Senatorial Committee (N.R.S.C.), which is exploiting the notorious soft-money loophole in campaign finance law-seems to have had the desired effect. Polls in mid-September showed Wellstone losing his lead and voter opinion evenly split. "A million dollars' worth of attack ads will work up to a point:' The Republicans have assailed Wellstone on many fronts. Rudy Boschwitz bills the contest as a referendum on liberalism, Wellstone terms it a vote on the Newt Gingrich agenda and `scumbag politics.'