Allen says opponent provoked incident

LEESBURG, Va. — Republican Sen. George Allen on Wednesday refused to denounce his supporters' manhandling of a liberal blogger a day earlier, accusing his Democratic opponent of provoking the videotaped incident.

The scuffle lingered as both Allen and Democrat James Webb entered the final week of their bitter and sometimes bizarre campaign. Polls show it to be a close race that could help determine if the GOP retains its Senate majority.

Webb, campaigning in Richmond, said he knew nothing of the incident Tuesday in which men wearing blue Allen lapel stickers put University of Virginia law student W. Michael Stark in a choke hold and slammed him to the floor after an Allen rally at a Charlottesville hotel.

Video of the incident was shown often on cable-news networks and circulated widely on the Internet, posing a late-campaign distraction for Allen as he was trying to make his final push to the Nov. 7 election.

Stark, the blogger, filed a criminal complaint Tuesday with police in Charlottesville, but said he did not know the names of his attackers.

Call backs claims against candidate

LAS VEGAS — Police on Wednesday released a 911 call in which a woman repeated claims by a casino cocktail waitress that Nevada's Republican candidate for governor attacked her in a parking garage near the Las Vegas Strip.

The Oct. 13 call supports previous statements by Chrissy Mazzeo that she called a friend and family member immediately after contacting police. The call was placed by a woman who did not give her name but identified herself as Mazzeo's sister. She told the operator Mazzeo had called one hour earlier to report the alleged assault.

"She just called me and she would never lie about this," the woman said in the recording.

Jim Gibbons, 61, a married, five-term congressman from Reno, is in a tight race for governor with Democratic state Sen. Dina Titus. He has denied any impropriety and says he helped Mazzeo when she tripped while walking toward the garage.

Coulter case may go to prosecutors

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Conservative commentator Ann Coulter has refused to cooperate in an investigation into whether she voted in the wrong precinct, so the case probably will be turned over to prosecutors, Palm Beach County's elections chief said Wednesday.

Elections Supervisor Arthur Anderson said his office has been looking into the matter for nearly nine months, and that he would turn over the case to the State Attorney's Office by Friday.

Anderson's office received a complaint in February that Coulter voted in the wrong precinct during a Feb. 7 Palm Beach town council election. Knowingly voting in the wrong precinct is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.

Coulter's attorney did not immediately return a call Wednesday. Neither did her publicist at her publisher, Crown Publishing.

Compiled from The Associated Press