Frist's Tennessee Recess Is Puzzling for a Presidential Hopeful

Conservative cable TV host and former Panhandle congressman Joe Scarborough, who had been weighing a run for the Florida Senate seat occupied by Democrat Bill Nelson, announced yesterday that he will not challenge Rep. Katherine Harris for the Republican nomination.

Sen. Elizabeth Dole (N.C.), who heads the National Republican Senatorial Committee, had tried to persuade Scarborough to challenge Harris, who is well known across Florida as the outspoken and highly visible secretary of state during the 2000 election recount. She has beaten popular opponents in the past, but Republicans worry that she's too divisive to win a statewide race. Polls have shown Harris trailing Nelson in a general election matchup.

"When party leaders approached me three weeks ago, I told them how difficult a campaign would be this year considering my personal and professional commitments," the Associated Press quoted Scarborough as saying yesterday. "Besides, I never cared for candidates who had to be coaxed into a political battle. Either you feel it in your gut, or you don't."

He didn't, so he will renew his contract for "Scarborough Country" on MSNBC, taped in his home town, Pensacola, where his youngest son is finishing high school.

Ad Volume Muted on Roberts

Both liberal and conservative groups in the John G. Roberts Jr. battle may have plenty to say about the Supreme Court nominee, but they're not putting big money behind their messages.

An analysis of political television advertising in all 210 markets in the country turned up only two brief ad campaigns by either side. "This is another sign that this nomination is not going to be much of a fight," said Ken Goldstein, director of the University of Wisconsin Advertising Project, which compiled the report based on data by Nielsen Monitor-Plus.

The first ad was launched the day after Bush nominated Roberts by the conservative advocacy group Progress for America. The ad, which supported Roberts, ran 186 times on cable networks, nine times on Washington stations, and once in 138 other markets.

On Aug. 10, the liberal NARAL Pro-Choice America debuted its controversial ad criticizing Roberts as an abortion rights opponent. The ad ran 200 times, mostly in Maine and Rhode Island, but was pulled after both political parties criticized it as inaccurate. Progress for America responded to the NARAL ad with its own spot, titled "How Low," which began airing Aug. 11 and ran 33 times on cable and in the Laredo, Tex., market.

"It's like an election campaign," Goldstein said. "Candidates and parties can talk all they want about a state or seat being in play, but if they are not airing advertisements, the race is not competitive."