[Noooooo! Both candidiates did negative ads--BUT: Bowles started it and bowles's ads were by far the nastiest and most cunning in teir fact-twisting. Oh I hope he turns it down, although he might not, he's power-hungry. The man has no idea how the average person lives,] Wed Nov 20,12:49 AM ET

WASHINGTON -- Casting a wide net for candidates to head the Securities and Exchange Commission (news - web sites), the White House has approached former President Clinton (news - web sites)'s chief of staff Erskine Bowles to see if he might be interested in the job, Wednesday's Wall Street Journal reported.

Mr. Bowles, an investment banker who recently lost a U.S. Senate bid to Republican Elizabeth Dole in North Carolina, seems unlikely to take the job. Reached at his home in Charlotte, Mr. Bowles said, "I'm not on the list." He added that his sole focus at the moment is calling supporters who worked on his Senate campaign to thank them. One person close to the search said Mr. Bowles is "not pursuing" the opportunity.

Republican operatives reporting to the White House also have called other Democrats in recent days, including Robert Pozen, the former vice chairman of the mutual-fund company Fidelity Investments. Another Democrat, Peter Fisher, a Treasury undersecretary, was mentioned earlier as a possible candidate, but he said he isn't interested.

In the end, President Bush is likely to name a Republican for such a high- profile post. But by including so many Democrats in the search, the White House appears to be taking a bipartisan approach to addressing the huge political problems created by Harvey Pitt, the current chairman who has submitted his resignation.

Among Republicans, the White House has again approached Rep. Christopher Cox of California, who is chairman of the House Policy Committee. Mr. Cox was on the short list for the SEC chairmanship last time around; this time he has told his staff members that he would rather become chairman of the House Government Reform Committee (news - web sites) when a new chairman is chosen in January.

The pace of the search has slowed since last week, when the White House abruptly ended its consideration of Michael Chertoff, the hard-charging chief of the Justice Department's criminal division. The names now being floated indicate the White House wants to come up with a list representing candidates of all political stripes.

Wall Street Journal Staff Reporters Kate Kelly, Michael Schroeder and John Hechinger contributed to this report.

-- Anonymous, November 20, 2002