For Giuliani, Things Go Better Without Coke

The South Carolina state treasurer's drug problem is reverberating in New York, where the Giuliani campaign severed ties with volunteer state chairman Thomas Ravenel after his indictment yesterday on federal cocaine-trafficking charges. The campaign said the real estate millionaire "has stepped down from his volunteer responsibilities," and the governor suspended him from his post.

The charges date to 2005, but local law enforcement wasn't able to charge Ravenel before his election last fall, the New York Post reported, and the feds took over the investigation in April. The onetime GOP rising star, the some of a former Republican congressman, now faces a 20-year sentence and $1 million fine. (More Election 2008 stories.)