Barrage of Ads Hits S.C. as Key Primary Nears

South Carolina Republicans are being barraged with mail, telephone calls, TV commercials and radio ads in the final days of a close and crucial primary that is likely to set new records for campaign spending.

“One side starts spending and the other side has to match it,” said Darrell West of Brown University. “It’s like two tarantulas in a jar, with apologies to Mr. Bush and Mr. McCain.”

Most of the advertising is aimed at John McCain. Rival George W. Bush and a host of special interest groups are each sponsoring attacks on the Arizona senator that are intended to stop his surging campaign.

In the week before Saturday’s South Carolina primary, Bush is spending $605,000 on TV commercials and McCain $575,000, officials from both campaigns said. That amount would be modest for a campaign in California. But in a state with fewer than 4 million people, experts said the airwaves are saturated.

Nationwide, the campaigns also reported spending levels this week that far exceed previous campaigns. Bush alone reported that he has spent at least $50 million on his campaign as of Jan. 31, smashing Sen. Bob Dole’s old record of more than $38 million for the total 1996 primary season. Officials say Bush now has about $20 million left, much less than many party insiders had expected.

McCain, meanwhile, also is approaching Dole’s previous record since he has spent about $26 million and has $10 million left.

McCain recently made a risky campaign decision to cancel his television commercials attacking Bush. He is now broadcasting two television commercials, one touting his character and the other contending that he can win the White House.

Bush, however, has remained on the attack.

In attacks from anti-abortion and tobacco groups as well as the Bush campaign itself, McCain is being called a weak opponent of abortion and a tax-and-spend liar.

The National Right to Life Committee launched a new anti-McCain radio ad on Wednesday, its fourth in the state. The group also sent out a mass mailing that said McCain “voted repeatedly to use tax dollars for experiments that use body parts from aborted babies.” Another mailer, featuring a baby photograph, said, “This little guy wants you to vote for George Bush.”

Meanwhile, the National Smokers Alliance is trying to buy time for a new round of anti-McCain spots.

“There’s a long line of people outside of every radio station door,” said Tom Humber, president of the smokers alliance in Washington. “There is virtually no TV time.”

In all, Bush is airing three TV commercials in South Carolina, including half-hour paid programming that ran on one major TV stations Wednesday and is scheduled to air again tonight.

Bush said he was not alarmed at how fast he was spending the record $72 million he has raised.

“I’m in every state. We’re prepaying a lot of [ad] buys in big expensive states and we’re on plan. I like my chances,” he said.

A McCain official said their heavy expenditures are “necessary because we want to get our message out, that John McCain is running a positive campaign.”

Experts said while both the amount spent and the ferocity of attacks on McCain are remarkable, such campaigning was inevitable in a year when so many states crowded to the front of the election calendar and a tough two-way race developed. But they warn that the attacks could suppress voter turnout, both this weekend and long term.

Having pulled its negative attacks, McCain’s campaign agrees, charging that Bush is “emptying the gutters” on him.

McCain officials charge that the tobacco and anti-abortion groups that have launched attacks are part of the Washington establishment that is conducting an all-out effort to stop his plan for campaign finance reform. They also charge the groups are out to help Bush.

“They’re working hand in glove, even if they’re not doing it explicitly, they’re kindred souls,” charged Ken Khachigian, one of McCain’s senior advisors. “George W. Bush cannot divorce himself from all these people out there shoveling all this mud at John McCain. It’s terrible.”

Both the groups and the Bush campaign deny any coordination, which would be illegal under federal election law.

Common Cause general counsel Don Simon, who supports McCain’s proposals for regulating political ads, warned that McCain’s decision to try to stay positive could backfire. He said that while people claim to dislike negative ads, they may secretly be entertained by them and expect candidates to answer charges leveled against them.

A recent Washington Post poll found that after watching Bush and McCain attack each other in negative ads, six in 10 Republicans surveyed nationwide said they were more likely to vote for the Texas governor.

Bush spokesman Ari Fleisher said McCain should stop whining.

“When [issue] ads were run against Bush [by the Sierra Club] he didn’t accuse, he didn’t criticize,” said Fleisher. “He recognized that is part of the 1st Amendment right that this nation enjoys.”

Carol Tobias, head of the National Right to Life Committee, agreed.

“John McCain would have you believe anyone who criticizes him is motivated by money. If that was the case, I wouldn’t be sitting in an office with mismatched furniture with tape on the carpet. We are not motivated by money, we have an honest disagreement with Sen. McCain about abortion.”

Rich Galen, a former GOP strategist who writes an online political column called mullings.com, said for those fed up with the ads and mailers, “there’s a simple solution--hang up the phone, don’t open the envelope, change the channel, or better yet, turn the TV off.”

Times staff writers Maria L. La Ganga and T. Christian Miller contributed to this story.