It happened in the Ashcroft/Carnahan senate race too. Granted Bush was not yet president at the time, but the machine that assured his ascendancy was entrenched. If not Bush himself, then others in the GOP. It's worth noting that in two senate races in a row, an incumbent democrat in a close race with a Republican died in a small plane crash. We'll never know what really happened, because the man who took the blame, the pilot, is dead, and dead men tell no tales.