US mid-term election are usually not kind to the party controlling the White House. But tomorrow, when voters go to the polls, Republican candidates will find a presidential association a distinct asset.
In the last few days President Bush, still basking in post-9/11 approval ratings, has been sweeping through ten states rallying support for what he believes may yet be the sweetest of prizes - control of the Senate. The same party has not controlled the White House and both chambers of Congress since Dwight Eisenhower's first two years as Republican president in 1953-54, and the Administration salivates at a such a prospect.
But there's many a slip between cup and lip, and some voters, influenced by local issues, may well decide that their affections for the President are not transferable. Beneath the surface there are rumblings of disquiet - a poll yesterday for the New York Times/CBS found over one-third of Republicans expressing concern at the direction the country is heading..
Tomorrow voters will cast ballots for all of the 435 seats in the House of Representatives, 34 seats in the 100-member Senate, and 36 of the 50 state governors. By far the most important is the Senate, where a one-seat Democratic majority evaporated ten days days ago with the death of Minnesota's Paul Wellstone, although close observers do not expect a change of control in either chamber. In the Republican-controlled House, a six-seat majority is not believed vulnerable, with only some two dozen seats seen as marginal.
Not surprisingly, the President's tour has taken him to states with some of the closest Senate races, including Minnesota, South Dakota, Missouri and Arkansas. But there was also one place which family solidarity dictated he could not avoid - Florida, where his brother Jeb's gubernatorial race is evoking all the passions of the disputed finale of the 2000 presidential. And Florida remains strategically crucial for Mr Bush's 2004 bid, so both parties have thrown in the heavy guns to try to get out the vote.
Former President, Bill Clinton, and his Vice-President, Al Gore, were there over the weekend to support the Democrats' Bill McBride, a surprise primary victor, who is now polling some six percentage points less than than the Governor. But even if they do not win Florida, the Democrats are expected to take several key governorships, including such major prizes as Pennsylvania, Michigan and Illinois.