PRESIDENTIAL RACE

CHRISTIAN COALITION DISTRIBUTES GUIDES FOR VOTERS

The Christian Coalition is distributing 30 million voter guides that use conservative catch-phrases such as “unrestricted abortion on demand” and “affirmative action programs that provide preferential treatment” in detailing the positions of the two presidential candidates.

The guides will be distributed nationally starting today, handed out in churches, at shopping malls, and at other public locations. The coalition has been producing the guides since 1992.

Roberta Combs, coalition president, said the guides were an attempt to educate voters and “I don’t think the wording is loaded at all.” The description of the guides as “nonpartisan” was questioned by some political analysts and coalition critics.

“These guides are clearly partisan, almost always supporting the Republican campaign,” said the executive director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, Barry Lynn.

“They make the Republican look like a candidate for sainthood and the Democratic candidates look like they belong in the house of horrors wax museum,” Mr. Lynn said.

President Bush’s campaign answered a questionnaire for the guides, while Democrat John Kerry’s campaign did not. “The Christian Coalition can do the bidding of the Bush campaign under any guise that they want, but we’re still not going to answer their questionnaire,” said a Kerry adviser, Michael Meehan.

The coalition vigorously defends its nonpartisan status, important to its ability to retain its federal tax exemption. The group and the Internal Revenue Service have sparred for years over whether the coalition’s activities are too political for a tax-exempt group.

– Associated Press

NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION ENDORSES BUSH

The National Rifle Association endorsed President Bush for re-election yesterday, promising millions of dollars for ads, phone banks, and other get-out-the-vote efforts.

“The Supreme Court is going to be crucial to the future of the Second Amendment, and President Bush will appoint justices that respect the Bill of Rights,” NRA chief executive Wayne LaPierre told the Associated Press in a phone interview before announcing the endorsement at a news conference in Duluth, Minn.

Mr. Bush also supports legislation to protect the firearms industry from lawsuits and opposes centralizing files on gun owners, Mr. LaPierre said, calling the difference between Mr. Bush and Democrat John Kerry on guns “day and night.”

The gun-rights group’s political action committee has already spent roughly $1 million on TV and other advertising opposing Mr. Kerry.

– Associated Press

CONGRESSIONAL RACES

TOBACCO BUYOUT HELPS BURR CLOSE GAP IN SENATE RACE

RALEIGH, N.C. – A $10 billion payout from a Republican Congress to tobacco growers this week and a tidal wave of television advertisements have elevated Rep. Richard Burr into a neck-and-neck race with Democrat Erskine Bowles, President Clinton’s former White House chief of staff.

For months Bowles held a lead of 8 to 10 percentage points, an advantage many credited to name recognition from his unsuccessful 2002 Senate campaign against Elizabeth Dole.

Among other things, the candidates are battling over who should get credit for a tobacco quota buyout package that Congress passed Monday, which is expected to inject nearly $4 billion into the state economy. Though both candidates predicted the race would tighten and remain in doubt until the end, some within the GOP criticized Mr. Burr for not gearing his campaign up earlier.

Those doubts were erased by the congressman’s September surge, which saw the release two weeks ago of a Mason-Dixon Polling & Research survey showing Mr. Bowles with just a 45% to 44% lead. More recent polls have kept the race in the too-close-to-call category.

– Associated Press