Bush seeks to ensure poll win

WASHINGTON – With control of Congress at stake in today’s elections, President George W Bush campaigned in endangered Republican districts across conservative states while the top congressional Demcorat campaigned for her party in the left-leaning Northeast.

“Here’s the way I see it,” Bush told a crowd inside an auditorium in Grand Island, Nebraska on Sunday. “If the Democrats are so good about being the party of the opposition, let’s just keep them in the opposition.”Republicans are hoping their party’s acclaimed get-out-the-vote operation can prevent a Democratic rout in a campaign marked by voter fury over the Iraq war.Meanwhile, Democratic Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, hoping to become the first female leader of the House of Representatives, was cautiously optimistic about her party’s chances today.”We are thankful for where we are today, to be poised for success,” she said in Colchester, Connecticut.”But we have two Mount Everests we have to climb – they are called Monday and Tuesday.”Her party appears increasingly confident it can ride a wave of public disenchantment with the administration’s policies to victory in the House and, possibly, the Senate.Two days before the election, both parties focused on turning out voters.The numbers historically are low in nonpresidential year elections, with only about 40 per cent of US citizens of voting age casting ballots.Republicans and Democrats have sent out thousands of volunteers in states with the most contested races to work phone banks and canvass neighbourhoods.Both parties also have assembled legal teams for possible challengers in case of voting problems.Candidates were making their final pitches.Republicans repeated their assertion that Democrats would raise taxes and prematurely pull out of Iraq if they controlled Congress.Democrats pressed their case for change, arguing that Republicans blindly have followed Bush’s “failed policy.”Up for grabs are all 435 House seats, 33 Senate seats, governorships in 36 states, and thousands of state legislative and local races.Democrats need a gain of 15 House seats and six in the 100-member Senate to control Congress.Already, this is projected to be the most expensive election cycle ever, at $2,6 billion.Nampa-AP”If the Democrats are so good about being the party of the opposition, let’s just keep them in the opposition.”Republicans are hoping their party’s acclaimed get-out-the-vote operation can prevent a Democratic rout in a campaign marked by voter fury over the Iraq war.Meanwhile, Democratic Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, hoping to become the first female leader of the House of Representatives, was cautiously optimistic about her party’s chances today.”We are thankful for where we are today, to be poised for success,” she said in Colchester, Connecticut.”But we have two Mount Everests we have to climb – they are called Monday and Tuesday.”Her party appears increasingly confident it can ride a wave of public disenchantment with the administration’s policies to victory in the House and, possibly, the Senate.Two days before the election, both parties focused on turning out voters.The numbers historically are low in nonpresidential year elections, with only about 40 per cent of US citizens of voting age casting ballots.Republicans and Democrats have sent out thousands of volunteers in states with the most contested races to work phone banks and canvass neighbourhoods.Both parties also have assembled legal teams for possible challengers in case of voting problems.Candidates were making their final pitches.Republicans repeated their assertion that Democrats would raise taxes and prematurely pull out of Iraq if they controlled Congress.Democrats pressed their case for change, arguing that Republicans blindly have followed Bush’s “failed policy.”Up for grabs are all 435 House seats, 33 Senate seats, governorships in 36 states, and thousands of state legislative and local races.Democrats need a gain of 15 House seats and six in the 100-member Senate to control Congress.Already, this is projected to be the most expensive election cycle ever, at $2,6 billion.Nampa-AP