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WASHINGTON -- It's no surprise to Steve Lowe that being an atheist is considered taboo.

But when Lowe saw Sen. Elizabeth Dole's “godless” campaign ad, he did something he'd done only once before – he sent money to a political candidate.

Turns out, Dole's opponent Kay Hagan got 3,600 contributions within 48 hours of Dole airing of the controversial ad, which centered on Hagan's attendance at a fundraiser at the Boston home of someone active in the atheist community. The controversial ad left some viewers with the impression that Hagan didn't believe in God. The Democrat from Greensboro immediately used the “godless” ad as an e-mail fundraising tool, and it paid off for Hagan, who won election.

“I told Hagan's campaign, ‘This is the reason you're getting money from me. I want you to know this is not hurting you, this has helped you,'” said Lowe, a board member of the Washington Area Secular Humanists who gave $50 to Hagan and phoned Dole, R-N.C., several times to complain.

The 3,600 donations came from a cross-section of society.

“We got responses from people who identify themselves as atheists and every religion under the sun who found that ad offensive,” said Hagan spokeswoman Colleen Flanagan, who said the campaign hadn't yet calculated the dollar figure raised as a result and couldn't provide an estimate.

In her bid to win a second term in the U.S. Senate, Dole was trailing in several polls when she aired a pair of TV ads in the last week of her campaign.

Her initial spot opened with an announcer declaring: “A leader of the Godless Americans PAC recently held a secret fundraiser in Kay Hagan's honor,” then airs video of PAC members describing their beliefs, including a woman who says, “There was no Jesus.”

Hagan, who had in fact attended the fundraiser – though it was unrelated to one of the host's connection to the Godless Americans – charged that the ad questioned her faith. She particularly objected to how the ad closed, with a picture of her but another woman's voice saying, “There is no God.”

After a public uproar over the ad, Dole's campaign quickly aired a second ad that was modified by removing the ending and saying the issue was not one of faith for Hagan, who has been a Sunday school teacher and church elder. Instead, it questioned her judgment, saying: “If Godless Americans threw a party in your honor, would you go?”

Dole was roundly criticized for the campaign tactic. And some critics also questioned Hagan's judgment in attending the September fundraiser, which the Dole campaign had publicized even before it occurred, in August.

Before the ad aired, Hagan was leading 48 percent to Dole's 45 percent in an Oct. 25-26 poll. She won with 53 percent of the vote, compared to Dole's 44 percent.

Besides the campaign contributions to Hagan, another way to judge the impact of the TV ads is the point spread in early voting compared to Election Day, said Tom Jensen, a spokesman for Public Policy Polling in Raleigh.

During early voting, Hagan had 4 percentage points more of the N.C. vote than fellow Democrat Barack Obama did. Typically, a similar ratio exists on Election Day, Jensen said. But after Dole's ads saturated the air waves in the final days of the campaign, Hagan got 11 percentage points more of the N.C. vote than President-elect Obama got on Election Day.

Jensen said he thinks Dole would have lost anyway.

“It may have just made the difference between losing by 3 or 5 and losing by 9, but there is no doubt that running that ad hurt her chances of re-election, and probably damaged her legacy in the process,” he said.

Dole, asked about the strategy at a stop in Charlotte on Election Day, said she wasn't sure if it had helped or hurt her, but said she felt she had to “respond forcefully” after a barrage of ads from outside Democratic groups criticized her.

Asked at what point she decided to run the last-minute ad, Dole said she couldn't answer definitively, but added, “When she first said she was going there (to the fundraiser,) probably.”

Dole said the $3 million personal loan she made to her own campaign in early October wasn't specifically to pay for the “godless” ad.

“It was not tied in any way – that was just a matter of putting some skin in the game,” said Dole, a former director of the American Red Cross.

When Hagan asked for money the day after Dole's ad aired, Hagan said in an e-mail to supporters, “Help me respond by paying for an ad directly addressing these claims attacking my Christian faith.”

Lowe, the Washington atheist, said he gave money unsolicited because he was upset that Dole would suggest a candidate was “unworthy” for associating with people who don't believe in God.

“It was so offensive to me,” said Lowe, who on Tuesday unveiled an unrelated ad campaign with other atheist leaders at the National Press Club.

In that campaign, Washington buses will have signs that say, “Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness' sake.”

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