WASHINGTON - Rep. Mark Foley’s attempt to short-circuit his challenger’s campaign ended up contributing $5,000 to it.

Foley, the Republican who represents most of the Treasure Coast, sent a memo to Jean Elliott Brown’s out-of-town donors and 1,200 political action committees in Washington, quoting local newspaper articles on negative aspects of Brown’s campaign.

The intent of the memo, titled "Jean Elliott Brown Campaign Continues to Collapse," was to dry up her sources of money, Foley said. The result, however, was a quick infusion of$5,000 in donations to Brown from her irate donors.

"It’s a smear letter," Brown said, adding that one of the memos was sent to her own mother. "He’s really quite nervous about me being in the race."

Foley, of West Palm Beach, wanted to send recent articles about Brown’s campaign to donors who aren’t privy to the local newspapers and instead get e-mails from Brown saying "all’s well and good," he said. "I wanted to say, "before you invest some more money, you ought to get a feel for what’s happening in the district,’" Foley said. "You’re out of the zone."

Foley’s memo, sent May 11, was enclosed with copies of articles from The Stuart News/Port St. Lucie News, Palm Beach Post, and Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel that reflect negatively on Brown’s campaign.

The articles revealed that Brown repaid a loan to herself of $67,000 using campaign donations. That’s legal, but typically not done until after a campaign race is over. Other articles said Brown had been unable to collect enough valid voter petitions to qualify for the campaign, and instead had to pay an $8,000 fee.

A Sun-Sentinel headline read "Foley Challenger Lacking in Money Department."

Foley compared the money of both campaigns in the memo. He had more than $1.4 million in cash as of March 31, and she had $107,729. Foley also listed remarks from political analysts saying Foley’s hold on the 16th District is solid.

Brown sent response letters to all of her donors when she received calls about the memo. "Mr. Foley wants to make this campaign about money. But the tactic won’t work. This is a campaign about ideas and issues, not about who has the most money," the response said.

Supporters sent e-mails and money encouraging her to continue her fight. "Good work Jean; keep it up!" one e-mail said. "Keep on the gas!" said another. "You’re right, Mr. Foley is running scared I knew that the minute I got his 'correspondence.'" I thought that was incredibly low of him," another e-mail said. "So, where do I send a check and to whom is it made out?" asked another supporter.

One supporter said they didn’t mind having their donations used for Brown to repay a loan to herself. She originally withdrew the money from her individual retirement account to "jump start" the campaign. "I guess he thinks I’ll stop contributing," the supporter said. "If you had to encroach on your IRA to get the campaign going, then I’m happy to consider it an "advance’ to be covered by donations like mine," the e-mail said.

Directors of several political action committees who gave money to Brown’s campaign said they didn’t recall receiving the memo. Two directors, who asked not to be named, said it’s common for campaigns to send news clippings, but the articles usually are positive about the candidate who sends them, not negative about the candidate’s opponent.

"It would be viewed as highly suspect," one committee official said.

Liz Smith, director of the PAC for the American Federation of Teachers, said negative information from a candidate’s opponent would not figure into the committee’s decision-making about money. The federation gave Brown $5,000. "The opponents saying something negative about the candidate we want to support wouldn’t really affect our decision," Smith said. "When you see something from somebody you’re not supporting, I think you tend to just dump it."

Foley has repeatedly said he’s not worried about Brown’s challenge. He said he sent the memo because he was annoyed that so many of her out-of-town donors thought her campaign was going better than it actually was, based on Brown’s rosy e-mail messages.

Nonetheless, Brown has raised more money than any challenger Foley has faced since he first ran for the seat in 1994 to replace retiring Rep. Tom Lewis. Brown has raised almost $400,000 since she entered the race. Foley’s previous opponents never raised more than $100,000. Much of Brown’s money has come from an Internet fundraising campaign by a California-based group called MoveOn, which solicits donations to challengers of incumbents who voted for President Clinton’s impeachment. It also supports incumbents who voted against the impeachment.

Brown has already spent about $289,000 about 72 percent of what she’s raised. Although Foley has spent more than she ($350,000 so far), his spending represents only about 25 percent of his war chest.

"Scared? When you blow through a couple hundred thousand dollars at the beginning of a campaign and don’t show some more money?" Foley asked. "She spent a lot of money and yet she has nothing to back up some of her claims. I think I’m going to do just fine."

Brown’s not ready to give up. "We’re not going to let him get by with anything," she added. She said she has a "team in place" in Washington to respond to Foley’s attacks, but she refused to elaborate. She said she wasn’t worried about paying for this team, either.

"I don’t feel like I’m struggling," she said, adding that she’s confident she’ll raise $250,000 by month’s end.

Political analysts maintain that Foley still has a strong hold on the district, despite Brown’s claims in response to Foley’s memo that they have changed their ratings to "marginal" for him.

"I didn’t call it marginal anywhere," said Amy Walter, who tracks House races for the Cook Political Report in Washington. The most recent report lists Foley’s district as "likely Republican" for the election, one step removed from the "safe" rating he got in the Cook’s Call section of his entry in the 2000 Almanac of American Politics, which was written months before Brown entered the race.

Nonetheless, Walter said, "I wouldn’t see this race as one of the most competitive races in the country, and not in the state." Stuart Rothenberg, who also publishes a political report in Washington, agreed with Walter.

"I’m not particularly bullish about it as a race," he said. "It’s not in the top three or four dozen races that we think are most likely to turn over."

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