Original sentence: Ashcroft did not contest the election and was replaced by Mrs
Edited sentence: Ashcroft had previously denounced the CCC as racist, after a controversial interview in Southern Partisan magazine in which he expressed views which were widely interpreted as pro-Confederacy.Charles T.Despite his frequently avowed stance as "tough on crime", Ashcroft subsequently wrote to the federal Justice Department on Sell's behalf.During that period, Bugel's leadership of the local branch of the CCC, the Metro South Citizens Council, was often noted in the media.During the 2000 Senate campaign, Ashcroft met with Thomas Bugel, local president of the Council of Conservative Citizens (based in Missouri), to discuss the case of Dr.Following Ashcroft's nomination for federal attorney general and the subsequent public exposure of that meeting and letter, Ashcroft's spokeswoman Mindy Tucker asserted that he had not known that Bugel was associated with the CCC; this despite his having had extensive previous contact with Bugel between 1987 and 1993, when Bugel had been a member of the St.Louis dentist and CCC member indicted for several crimes including plotting to murder an FBI agent and a federal witness.Louis school board vociferously defending segregation, and Ashcroft had been attorney general and governor of Missouri who sided with Bugel.Sell, a St.This loss was despite having a larger budget than Carnahan that included controversial contributions from corporations such as Monsanto which contributed five times more to Ashcroft than to any other congressional hopeful at the time