Mrs. Swanson, who last week started, then said she shut down, a challenge to veteran state Sen. Tommy Moore, D-Clearwater, on the last day of filing for federal and statewide candidates in South Carolina, said Tuesday that she never formally withdrew from the race.

She's in, she said, opposing the same politician she ran against in 1996.

"My papers have been filed," said Mrs. Swanson, the regional director for Heritage Community Services, a nonprofit group that advocates abstinence among teens and young adults.

Mr. Moore promised to run a hard campaign against Mrs. Swanson.

"You can be assured it will be a full-court press," he said.

Mrs. Swanson declined to explain her latest political about-face, referring all questions to Aiken County Republican Party Chairman David Nix. She also declined comment about whether there was a reduction in the heavy workload she cited as her reason for withdrawing about nine hours after she filed to run against Mr. Moore last week.

"I prefer not to be commenting," she said. "I'd rather not make any comments right now and just get on with my life. ... I'll let you talk with David - OK?"

Mr. Nix, who said he telephoned Mrs. Swanson on Monday and last Friday to make sure she intended to stay in the race, said the state Senate's Republican leadership supports her candidacy, including state Sen. Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, the Senate majority leader and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.

"I would say she was under some sort of emotional distress when she called you," Mr. Nix said of a telephone call Mrs. Swanson made to The Augusta Chronicle on March 30 to say she intended to withdraw from the race. "Sen. Leatherman and the Senate Republican caucus is supporting her and other Republicans running against Democrats across the state."

However, Mr. Nix said he did not know whether Mr. Leatherman or any other Republican lawmaker called to urge Mrs. Swanson to stay in the race. Mr. Leatherman did not return repeated calls to his Capitol office in Columbia.

"It was a personal decision of Susan's," Mr. Nix said. "Once she saw the kind of support she was getting from people, she decided she had the support she needed to run."

Although she is an anti-abortion activist with extensive contacts on both sides of the Savannah River, political professionals consider her a one-issue candidate who faces a Democrat with the same anti-abortion credentials. Mr. Moore has repeatedly won the endorsement of the political arm of South Carolinians For Life, the state's largest and oldest anti-abortion organization, said Holly Gatling, the group's executive director.

"Our policy is to support the pro-life incumbent," said Ms. Gatling. "We stand with those who stand with us. We are not a subdivision of the Republican Party. We are authentically nonpartisan."

If Republican Party officials pressured Mrs. Swanson to stay in the race, it might have more to do with boosting the turnout of GOP voters in the fall election, which features President Bush's re-election bid and a hotly-contested race for retiring Democratic U.S. Sen. Ernest "Fritz" Hollings, said Robert Botsch, a political science professor at the University of South Carolina Aiken.

"Sounds like a reluctant candidate," Mr. Botsch said of Mrs. Swanson's candidacy. "Sounds like she's getting pushed."

This strategy could also boomerang on Republicans, he said.

"If Tommy gets angry and starts campaigning, it could backfire on Republicans and stir up Democratic turnout," he said. "They'd be better off going after someone who's not a good campaigner."

Reach Jim Nesbitt at (803) 648-1395 or jim.nesbitt@augustachronicle.com.

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