SEN. BOND, NIXON EXCHANGE BARBS; HOPEFULS ASSAIL NEGATIVE ADS

U.S. Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond and Democratic challenger Jay Nixon accused each other of slinging political mud during separate campaign stops Wednesday in Cape Girardeau.

Bond, who has served in the Senate since 1986, voiced his views during a visit to the Southeast Missourian.

The Republican said the Senate race is "the most negative race I have ever seen." Bond said Nixon has run attack ads that contain false and misleading information.

Bond said he has responded by running his own ads to clarify his record. "When somebody says things that are flatly not true, you have to respond to them," he said.

Nixon, Missouri's attorney general, countered that Bond was being a hypocrite. During an afternoon visit to the Cape Girardeau Alternative School on Broadway, Nixon said Bond has engaged in negative advertising throughout the campaign and continues to do so.

Bond criticized the running of a TV ad that shows him shoving a TV reporter at a hotel in Utah. Bond said the reporter worked for a TV tabloid show and was attempting to block him from entering an elevator.

Nixon said Bond was trying to duck a reporter's questions.

Bond has accused Nixon of misrepresenting his record as Missouri governor in an effort to make the senator look soft on crime.

Bond said he voted for the massive federal budget because he didn't want President Clinton to shut down the government. "We needed to keep the government moving," he said.

Bond blamed the House for not moving faster to iron out a budget package with the Senate.

He said the delay put Congress under the gun to get the budget approved or face the threat of a government shutdown. Bond said the House leadership needs to take charge of the budget process to avoid such problems in the future.

Bond acknowledged that lawmakers haven't read the entire budget and don't know everything that is in it.

"That is a problem with every major bill that goes through Congress," he said. "Congress has a bad tendency to have extremely long bills."

Bond said he is pleased that the budget includes $800,000 for the relocation of the Southeast Missouri Crime Lab in Cape Girardeau. Bond pushed for funding for the crime lab.

The senator said the Clinton administration has stripped away much of the defense budget. The Republican-led Congress can only go so far in funding the military because it doesn't have the votes to override a presidential veto, Bond said.

Bond said he wants to cut federal regulations on education and let local school boards decide how best to spend federal funds.

Nixon voiced support for Missouri's alternative schools. He spoke to about 25 students and staff at the school.

"Simply put, alternative schools work," said Nixon. Such schools allow districts to remove disruptive students from the classroom so they can get specialized help to become productive citizens, he said.

Missouri has 50 alternative schools. If elected to the U.S. Senate, Nixon said he would push to provide alternative schools nationwide.

Congress, he said, has focused only on locking people up. Nixon said that in the war on crime it is important to unlock the potential of people to be productive citizens. Otherwise, he said, government will have to build costly new prisons.

"We not only have to be tough on crime, we have to be smart on crime," said Nixon.

The attorney general also voiced support for a patients' bill of rights. He said such a measure would protect patients from insurance companies that put profits ahead of their customers' health care.