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As Louisiana Republicans battle to hold the 1st District seat vacated in January by incoming Gov. Bobby Jindal, the special election primary runoff there has taken a nasty tone on the airwaves going into Saturday's vote.

State Sen. Steve Scalise narrowly missed winning the majority of Republican votes needed to secure the nomination in last month's primary, leading state Rep. Tim Burns 48 percent to 28 percent. But that 20-point margin of victory is in the past, and in recent days both candidates have hurled negative advertisements at each other on issues ranging from crime to the response to Hurricane Katrina.

On Monday, Scalise launched an ad tagging Burns as soft on crime for votes on early parole for drug dealers serving life sentences. "He worried about prison overcrowding," the ad's narrator scolds. "Tim, prison is where drug dealers belong."

Alleging that the ad contained "false, misleading and prejudicial lies," Burns brought the matter before the 22nd District Court, which on Tuesday ordered the ad off the air. However, in an e-mail sent Thursday evening to reporters, Scalise said that a modified version of the spot would run, removing some of the more incendiary charges. "The voters deserve to know the truth, and now they will," he wrote.

The attacks haven't all been one-way, however. This week Burns began sending flyers and running a TV ad accusing Scalise of failing to protect homeowners from insurance companies in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Whoever wins the contentious primary runoff, the mudslinging could bloody him going into the May 3 general election against Democrat Gilda Reed, who handily won her party's primary with 70 percent of the vote.