Campaign Notebook: Nader candidacy expected

	Ralph Nader
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"I think there's very little doubt," said Micah Sifry, author of a book on third-party politics and a longtime Nader watcher. "I think he's going to run."

Nader, blamed for tilting the 2000 election to President Bush by siphoning off votes from Al Gore, twice has delayed saying whether he would be a candidate, but insiders expect the declaration next week.

Sifry is part of the campaign to stop Nader from running, including an open letter to him last month in The Nation, a liberal magazine that has been associated with Nader for 30 years. Nader contributors from 2000, such as Ben Cohen, a co-founder of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, also are organizing "No, Ralph, No" efforts.

Some Nader advocates had an epiphany after the 2000 election. Bush beat Gore by 537 votes in Florida, where Nader received 97,488 votes. Nader also arguably cost Gore New Hampshire.

Nader always has rejected the spoiler label. "It is not my job to elect my opponents," he has said.

CBS pulls Medicare ad that critics call political

WASHINGTON — CBS has stopped airing the Bush administration's publicly funded ad for the new Medicare prescription-drug law, pending a review of its content by investigators.

The 30-second ad, titled "Same Medicare. More Benefits," has prompted strong criticism from Democratic lawmakers and interest groups who say it is a barely disguised commercial for President Bush's re-election campaign.

Democrats asked the General Accounting Office (GAO), Congress' investigative arm, to examine whether the administration should be using taxpayer money to air the commercial.

"As soon as we became aware of the investigation, we pulled it," CBS spokesman Dana McClintock said yesterday.
 
CNN will continue to run the ad, a spokesman said, because "it doesn't violate any of our policies." NBC is showing the ad but is considering pulling it, a spokeswoman said.

Spokesmen at ABC and Fox did not comment immediately.

Kerry denies Drudge report about alleged two-year affair

MADISON, Wis. — Democratic front-runner John Kerry yesterday denied a report that he had been involved in an extramarital affair with a young woman.

Asked about the report by Web site operator Matt Drudge, Kerry said: "I just deny it categorically. It's rumor. It's untrue. Period."

After the denial, Kerry added: "And that's the last time I intend to."

Drudge said Thursday that Kerry had had a two-year relationship, beginning in early 2001, with a young woman who had left the country.

Kerry fund raising climbs but is outpaced by Bush's

WASHINGTON — John Kerry's fund raising has picked up substantially but is dwarfed by President Bush's campaign haul.

Kerry has raised at least $7 million this year, campaign spokesman Michael Meehan said yesterday. Bush has brought in at least $15.8 million since Jan. 1, bringing his re-election fund raising to at least $148.6 million, a presidential record.

Also ...

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney has scheduled a meeting of the federation's general board for Thursday "to officially endorse" Democratic front-runner John Kerry, according to the memo obtained by The Associated Press. ... Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, considered a potential running mate for the Democratic ticket, delivered a scathing economic speech against the Bush administration yesterday at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

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