US: A week before the United States votes in mid-term elections, Republicans are fighting back in key states in a last-ditch effort to retain control of Congress.
President George Bush, who has been largely absent from campaign events, was in Georgia and Texas yesterday to fire up Republican voters to go to the polls next Tuesday.
Opinion polls point to Democrats taking control of the House of Representatives, where all 435 seats are up for re-election and the party needs to win just 15 for a majority. In the Senate, where a third of the seats are in play, Democrats need to gain six for a majority. Democrats are confident that they will pick up Republican Senate seats in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Montana, with Rhode Island leaning towards the party. The Senate race is now focused on Missouri, Virginia and Tennessee, all currently held by Republicans.
Republicans are braced for heavy losses of House seats across the northeast, particularly in New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana. The party also faces losses in gubernatorial elections and governors in a majority of US states are likely to be Democrats after the election.
Speaking at Georgia Southern University yesterday, Mr Bush predicted an upset at the polls next week that would leave Republicans in control of the House and the Senate. "We will win this election because Republicans understand the values and priorities of the American people. We will win this election because our priorities and our values do not shift with the latest political opinion poll or focus group. We will win this election because we got a good record to run on," he said.
The Republican strategy in the final days of the campaign is to focus on motivating core supporters to vote in states and districts with close elections. Democratic candidates have faced increasingly shrill, negative advertising, with accusations that they are soft on terrorism and out of step with mainstream opinion on issues like gay rights.
In Tennessee, Democratic Senate candidate Harold Ford jnr, who is black, has been the target of some of the most controversial ads, which some African-American groups claim are racist. A new radio ad for Republican Bob Corker has drums beating while it talks about Mr Ford and a symphonic choir singing while it talks about Mr Corker.
In Virginia, Republican senator George Allen has drawn attention to sexually explicit passages in novels written by his Democratic challenger Jim Webb more than a decade ago.
With most Americans saying that the Iraq war was not worth fighting and Mr Bush's popularity rating stuck below 40 per cent, Democrats are seeking to link Republican candidates with the war and the president. Few Republican candidates feature Mr Bush in their campaign literature but most Democrats are using pictures of the president to suggest that next week's election should be a referendum on his presidency and his conduct of the war in Iraq.
Republicans are warning voters that a Democratic victory would make Nancy Pelosi, a San Francisco liberal, speaker of the House of Representatives and third in line to the president.
The Republicans' best hope of retaining control of Congress may lie in its superior get-out-the-vote operation, which uses "micro-targeting" of voters to tailor campaign messages to them. Tens of thousands of activists in both parties are manning phone banks, calling voters in key states to encourage them to vote.
Political analysts are looking beyond next week to consider how a Democratic majority in the House or Senate could influence the final two years of Mr Bush's presidency. Democrats have promised to pursue a moderate agenda and to co-operate with the administration when possible.
A Democratic victory could enhance the prospects of comprehensive immigration reform, which would allow most illegal immigrants to stay in the US and eventually apply for citizenship.
Democrats are likely to launch investigations into the preparation and conduct of the Iraq war, however, which could prove highly embarrassing to the administration.
