As Bush was forcing out his opposition and campaigning, Senator McCain was campaigning months after his informal announcement in April in South Carolina after his decision to bypass the Iowa caucus. On August 4 the first major scandal in the Bush campaign started after his refusal to answer whether he had ever used cocaine. Seventeen days later Bush won an Iowa straw poll and held a press conference in Austin, Texas where the question of his drug use was raised, causing him to become agitated. When asked if he thought the rumors were being planted Bush replied with "Do I think they are being planted? I know they are being planted, and they are ridiculous and they're absurd and the people of America are sick and tired of this kind of politics and I am not participating." The next day Bush would say that he had never used drugs since 1974 and that his FBI background check clears him of any possible drug use. While this scandal was going on another low profile scandal popped up involving the firing of Democratic Eliza May, Texas' top funeral industry regulator. The Bush campaign along with multiple other Republican candidates attacked Al Gore due to his ties to Russia. On September 2 Bush gave his first speech regarding his policy on education stating that his administration would require states to test disadvantaged students and proposed stripping federal funds from the worst-scoring schools and allowing private schools to get public money. After campaigning in New Hampshire for months polling showed that Bush's numbers had risen eight percent since May from 37% to 45% while John McCain's fell two percent from 14% to 12% and was still behind Elizabeth Dole by three percent. Another poll at the time showed that Bush had increase his polling lead against Gore with 56% going to Bush and 39% going to Gore. After Larry Gene Ashbrook committed a church shooting at Fort Worth, Texas Bush cut his campaign activities to return to Texas where he stated that "there seems to be a wave of evil passing through America now, and we as a society can pass laws and hold people accountable for the decisions they make, but our hopes and prayers have got to be that there is more love in society," and six days later Bush announced a gun crimes initiative. On September 23 Bush was campaigning in South Carolina where he promised to renew a bond of trust between president and the military and attacked Bill Clinton for his endless and aimless deployments, which he promised to end. Five days later Bush received a major endorsement when the Governor of Arizona, Jane Dee Hull, chose to endorse him instead of Arizona's own Senator McCain. The Bush campaign enjoyed two major successes in the beginning of October where the mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani, endorsed Bush and a few days later a Quinnipiac Poll showed that Bush was matching Gore in New York, but was lagging behind Bill Bradley.