Incumbents Are Attacked for Rescue Plan

In Campaigns, Bipartisan Effort Is Criticized by Opponents From Both Sides

On the evening of Sept. 30, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) helped unveil a bipartisan deal that would open the door to massive government intervention in the financial markets, calling it "one of the finer moments in the Senate."

Less than two weeks later, McConnell may wish to revise his remarks about the bipartisan nature of the $700 billion rescue plan. Soon after praising the plan, McConnell came under assault in television ads from his opponent and the Democratic Party alleging that his neglect helped contribute to economic collapse.

Congressional leaders in both parties demanded support for the rescue plan and hailed its passage. But that unity has given way to a storm of acrimony on the campaign trail and a crossfire of blame. In Senate races from Oregon to Georgia, and House races in northeastern Pennsylvania and Hartford, Conn., incumbents who were prodded into voting for the package find themselves under siege from challengers who accuse them of writing a "blank check" for Wall Street financiers.

Despite the increasingly hostile advertisements, Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said that a kind of detente had been declared by national party committees in which they would not directly criticize incumbents for their vote in support of the plan. The anti-bailout campaigns are "not being orchestrated here in Washington," he said, but rather coming from individual candidates.

"Everyone's got to exercise their own independent judgment on this. This is part of the debate in American democracy," said Van Hollen, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

The truce is being put to its toughest test in Kentucky. McConnell, who worked closely with Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) in crafting the Senate compromise that ultimately led to the bill's final passage, was taking hits from his opponent, Democrat Bruce Lunsford. By Sunday, two days after President Bush signed the legislation into law, McConnell issued a nearly 1,000-word letter to supporters, explaining his role in shaping the legislation as a necessary move to "preserve the way we do business."

Last week, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee launched an ad campaign criticizing McConnell for supporting laws deregulating the financial services industry. "McConnell opened the gate, and Wall Street ran wild. Now our entire economy is at risk," the narrator says, citing a 1999 bill that led to less regulation of the industry.

McConnell's campaign fired back by noting that Sen. Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.), chairman of the DSCC, had supported the very same 1999 bill and called it "an American success story" on the Senate floor. As DSCC chairman, Schumer has raised three times as much money from the financial services sector this year for the DSCC as McConnell had raised from the same industry in the past two decades, according to McConnell's campaign.

Schumer, who helped negotiate the $700 billion bill, does not apologize for the criticism of McConnell. He said the DSCC would go after Republicans who supported the rescue plan if he felt that their previous votes helped create "the conditions heading up to" the bailout.

After long considering McConnell a safe bet for a fifth term, independent analysts now give the incumbent only a slight edge.

In addition to McConnell, incumbent GOP Sens. Gordon Smith (Ore.) and Saxby Chambliss (Ga.) are facing sustained advertising campaigns either criticizing their votes for the package or their support for earlier legislation that may have helped cause the meltdown.

In House races, the role is largely reversed. With only a few Republicans in swing seats supporting the plan, it is mostly Democratic incumbents who find themselves on the defensive against GOP challengers looking to use the bailout vote as a slingshot to help their underdog bids catch on.