Campaign Notebook
Ashcroft's 2000 Senate bid probed

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WASHINGTON — Attorney General John Ashcroft's own Justice Department is looking at allegations he may have violated campaign laws when he unsuccessfully ran for re-election to the Senate in 2000.

The Public Integrity Section of the department's Criminal Division is conducting the review. It will determine whether the campaign-finance law violations alleged against Ashcroft's political committees and investigated by the Federal Election Commission should be a criminal case.

If a criminal investigation follows, a special prosecutor could be appointed.

The violations center on the use of a mailing list of 100,000 Ashcroft contributors by the former political-action committee and the campaign committee he set up in 2000 when he sought re-election to the Senate. The FEC levied a $37,000 civil fine, but both committees denied wrongdoing.

In its ruling in December, the FEC said that Ashcroft's Spirit of America PAC had transferred the mailing list to his campaign committee, Ashcroft 2000. The committee received $110,000 in income as a result of the list, which the FEC said constituted a violation by the PAC because PACs are only allowed to contribute $5,000 per election.

In addition, neither the PAC nor the committee reported the contribution, the FEC said.

Jesse Helms' granddaughter prepares to run for office

RALEIGH, N.C. — Sen. Jesse Helms looked on yesterday as his granddaughter filed papers to run for public office, an emotional moment for a man considered a father of the national conservative movement.

"I guess I'm choking up a little bit," Helms said after Jennifer Knox formally announced her bid for a District Court judgeship in Wake County. "Good luck to you, Baby. I'm proud of you."

Knox, 30, an assistant district attorney, is the first direct descendant of the five-term Republican senator to run for office. She said her grandfather's political legacy prompted her in part to run for judge.
 
"His notion of public service. ... That's really made an impact on me," Knox said.

Students ask Cheney to avoid politics in graduation speech

MIAMI — More than 200 Florida State University students have asked for assurances Vice President Dick Cheney won't deliver a "political diatribe" or launch a campaign rally when he speaks at their graduation today.

The request came after the Republican devoted much of a speech Monday at Westminster College in Missouri to criticizing presumptive Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry.

Westminster's president, Fletcher Lamkin, sent an e-mail afterward apologizing to students and faculty for Cheney's speech.

Florida State President T.K. Wetherell, a Democrat and former speaker of the Florida House, said through a spokeswoman that Cheney's aides had assured him the speech would be "a positive message to the graduates."

Also ...

Former Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean is talking to television producers at Paramount about hosting a talk show, according to a spokesman for Dean's grass-roots group, Democracy for America. ... Cynthia McKinney, the former Georgia congresswoman defeated in 2002 after accusing President Bush of ignoring warnings of the Sept. 11 attacks, qualified yesterday to seek her old seat, now held by fellow Democrat Denise Majette.