N.C. GOP spurns bid by McCain to halt ad

INEZ, Ky. — Republican John McCain on Wednesday asked the North Carolina GOP not to run a television ad that brings up the controversial former pastor of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

North Carolina Republican Party officials insisted the ad will run as planned despite McCain's request.

The ad opens with a photo of Obama and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright together and a clip of Wright, whose comments on race have bedeviled Obama.

"He's just too extreme for North Carolina," the narrator says in the 30-second spot.

McCain told reporters traveling with him in Kentucky that he was sending the state party an e-mail asking officials to take down the ad. "Obviously, I don't control them, but I'm making it very clear ... that there's no place for that kind of campaigning, and the American people don't want it."

Obama said: "My understanding is that the Republican National Committee and John McCain have both said that the ad's inappropriate. ... I assume that if John McCain thinks that it's an inappropriate ad, that he can get them to pull it down since he's their nominee and standard-bearer."

Clinton claims $10M

in 24-hour span

WASHINGTON — In the hours after winning Pennsylvania's Democratic presidential primary, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign said she raised $3.5 million.

By late Wednesday, the campaign estimated the total haul at $10 million raised online in the 24 hours since Pennsylvania's polls closed, and claimed it was her best fundraising day.

She can use the money. On Sunday, the campaign revealed that at the end of March it had just slightly more than $9 million in the bank and $10 million in debt.

Her rival for the nomination, Sen. Barack Obama, had more than $40 million cash on hand at the start of April.

The audacity of the Abercrombie guys

Who didn't notice the Abercrombie guys standing behind Sen. Barack Obama on Tuesday night as he conceded the Pennsylvania primary to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton?

There were more than 7,000 people in Obama's crowd, in Indiana, but three young men, wearing T-shirts with Abercrombie & Fitch logos, were front and center on national TV for more than 20 minutes.

It is not clear whether the men were just Obama fans who happened to dress alike.

Tom Lennox, a spokesman for Abercrombie & Fitch, said the company had nothing to do with the stunt, if that is what it was. But he liked it. "I wish we'd thought of it," he said.

Also

Debate challenge: Hillary Rodham Clinton challenged Barack Obama to two debates in Oregon before the state's May 20 primary. An Obama spokesman said the campaign will decide soon whether Obama would participate.

Primary challenge: A top supporter of Hillary Rodham Clinton filed a challenge with the Democratic National Committee to try to seat Michigan's pledged delegates at the national convention in Denver. Michigan and Florida were stripped of delegates for holding primaries too early.

Seattle Times news services