WASHINGTON, Nov 3: America's ferocious mid-term election campaign moves towards its climax on Tuesday when elections for the House of Representatives and the Senate will be held.
In the House, all of the 435 seats are up for grabs. In the Senate, 33 of the 100 seats are open for contest.
Some pundits predict that the mid-term elections could see one or both houses of Congress shift from Republican to Democratic control. Should that happen, it would end the Republicans' 12-year control of Congress.
But at least on survey poll -- by the Memphis Business Journal – predicts that the Republican reign will continue. A 57 per cent majority of respondents to this poll favoured Republicans while 39 percent for the Democrats.
Ohio is the key swing state in American politics, with an unrivalled ability to pick a winner in presidential elections. So far the Democrats seem to have an edge over their Republican opponents in this state too.
Once a solid lock for the Republican Party, Tennessee has become a major political battleground too, as candidate, Harold Ford Junior, unexpectedly gives his Republican opponent, Bob Corker, a run for his money. If Harold Ford wins he'll be the first black Senator from the south since 1881.
In a recent article, the Washington Post noted that “indictments, investigations and allegations of wrongdoing” were also hurting the Republicans.
In the House, at least 15 Republican seats are in jeopardy because of these allegations, enough to swing control to the Democrats on Tuesday.
Revelations about the predatory sexual behaviour of Republican Representative Mark Foley hurt the Republicans the most. Mr Foley was forced to resign amid questions about why he was not stopped by the party hierarchy earlier.
The Republicans confronted another sex scandal on Thursday when a religious leader with White House ties, the Rev. Ted Haggard, resigned after accusations by a male prostitute that the pastor paid him for sex during a three-year period.
He's the head of the National Association of Evangelicals, which is considered the strongest pro-Republican group in the country.
The Democrats have their problems too. This week, former Democratic presidential candidate and a 2008 presidential hopeful, Senator John F. Kerry, caused uproar when he warned a group of students in California they may end up fighting the war in Iraq if they ignored their studies. Since then he has twice apologised, saying that it was only “a botched joke” and he did not mean to offend US troops in Iraq. Yet he had to cancel all his campaign assignments as Democratic candidates felt that his appearance in their constituencies may hurt them.
But so far the strongest influence on US voters is that of the Iraq war. All opinion surveys, including those conducted by pro-Republican think-tanks, acknowledge that there’s a general disenchantment with the war in Iraq and it is playing in Democrats’ favour.
The Democrats are also helped by the fact that the president's party often loses seats in the mid-terms, especially in a second presidential term.
President Bush and the Republicans are focusing on the economy and on national security to woo the voters. Yet many more seats regarded as safely Republican are now seen as either swinging to the Democrats or are at least considered uncertain.
Faced with a possible Democratic victory, the Republicans are resorting to, what is described in the US media as, ‘attack ads’ that accuse opponents of everything from racism, foul language, kinky sex -- even promoting child sex.
