Ashcroft response muted

In response to Jean Carnahan’s announcement she’ll accept appointment to the senate if her husband beats John Ashcroft, the incumbent senator says Mrs. Carnahan has always been kind to him and frequently spoken well of him. Ashcroft declines to directly answer the question of whether his campaign for re-election has become more difficult since the death of Mel Carnahan and the entrance of Jean Carnahan in the mix. And as for the public opinion polls that show Carnahan leading, Ashcroft says he deliberately stopped campaigning during the week after Carnahan’s death. If that costs him the election, he says, it was still the right thing to do.