PRESIDENT Clinton is so far ahead of Mr Bob Dole in the polls that the Democrats might gain control of both Houses of Congress if he campaigned harder for it, some critics charge. The drive needs a national platform, and the President does not focus on the congressional elections because he wants to stay "on message - meaning his own reelection his critics claim.
The accusation is untrue and the inference unfair. Mr Clinton is helping Democrats in trouble, in their own districts. A case in point is New Jersey where the dirtiest campaign in the nation is being waged for the Senate sea of Mr Bill Bradley, a star basketball player and Rhodes scholar who was expected to be president himself one day.
The Vice President, Mr Al Gore, was in New Jersey on Friday and Mr Clinton is expected on the eve of the poll. He is also helping another senator in trouble, his friend, Mr Tom Harkin of Iowa.
Mr Bradley was presidential material, all the pundits agree, but he never made his move. He might have run in 1992, but Mr George Bush was considered unbeatable because of the Gulf War - by everyone but Mr Clinton.
Last year, Mr Bradley decided he had enough of politics and would not seek re election. There was a scramble for the succession, and of these 34 US Senate elections New Jersey's is the most ill tempered.
The candidates are both members of the US House of Representatives: Mr Dick Zimmer the Republica, and Mr Robert G. Torricelli, the Democrat.
Apparently they, were reasonably good friends while in the House. Not anymore.
Mr Zimmer accused Mr Torri Hamas terrorist group implicated in the World Trade Centre bombing. A further accusation said the Democrat "took campaign contributions from mobsters".
To link someone with, an Italian name to mobsters is equivalent to calling him a member of the Mafia. Mr Torricelli responded by denouncing Mr Zimmer as a liar and the battle was joined.
It's a neck and neck race, and could make the difference in winning the Senate for either party. A last minute poll indicates why. One third of the respondents said they will vote for Mr Zimmer, one third for Mr Torricelli and one third are undecided.
All 435 seats in the House of Representatives including the Speaker's - will be voted on tomorrow. Many Americans won't bother to vote. A 50 per cent turn out will be considered good. The poor generally don't vote. A low turn out may be a problem for the Democrats, who need a net gain of 19 seats to win control of the House.
A New York Times/CBS News poll found that 47 per cent of those interviewed want the Democrats to control Congress 39 per cent favour the Republicans. But when the question was made more specific, 48 per cent favoured a Republican Congress with Mr Clinton as President, and only 41 per cent still wanted a Democratic Congress.
Republicans will gain in the South - the old Confederacy - because that's been the trend in recent years: a complete change about from the 1960s. Richard Nixon began it in 1968 with what he called The southern strategy as a way of breaking the Democratic stranglehold on Congress.
It's connected with race, of course, although that point is not admitted. The Republicans "the party of Lincoln" are opposed to government solutions for black unemployment, or any form of affirmative action, welfare benefits or student loans to help alleviate black poverty.
Mr John Sweeney's AFL CIO, the US trade union movement, has put 535 million into the election drive to promote the causes of labour and social justice.
In the 34 Senate elections the odds favour the Republicans. Six, Republicans and eight Democrats; are retiring. There are a number of, close contests, but the Democrats, would have to win two thirds of these to regain control of the Senate.
In the tobacco country of North Carolina there's a replay of a bitter 1990 battle starring Senator Jesse Helms, the right wing Republican chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and Mr Harvey Gantt, an African American. There is no black senator in the US Congress. There was one once, Mr Edward W. Brooke, in 1966-1978 for Massachusetts, the first in over a century unless Mr. Gantt succeeds.
Mr Gantt, lost 53 per cent to 47 per cent six years ago with sup, port from 35 per cent of the white, voters. To defeat Mr Helms he must persuade more whites to vote for him, no easy task in North Carolina. It explains why there are no blacks in the US Senate. Mr Gantt, an architect, is aged 53, to Mr Helms's 75.
Mr Helms, of course, is the senator who has the EU, Canada and much of Latin America in an uproar over the US Helms Burto, Act, which tightens economic, sanctions on Cuba and applies a secondary extra territorial boycott on sovereign states trading with Cuba.
Mr Helms is vulnerable among some whites in North Carolina because he supports privatising Medicare and Social Security, and, his demand for abolition of the Federal Department of Education. The Clinton administration considers him the voice of the tobacco industry, on which it has declared war. If Mr Gantt man ages to unseat Mr Helms he will be an international hero, but do not bet on it.
The Senate battle for Massachusetts has Mr John Kerry a shade ahead of Governor William F. Weld, following a debate last Monday, which Mr Gore attended. Theirs is a more orderly contest than the one in New Jersey, but less mannerly now than at the start. They are getting testy.
The more aggressive Mr Weld has been hurt as a result. Mr Kerry is a Vietnam war hero who, opposed the war. Mr Weld is a popular governor of a state that often gets rid of governors after one term.
Among the southern senate seats, the Democrats hope to win Louisiana. Their candidate is Ms Mary Laudrieu, daughter of a famous mayor of New Orleans, Mr Moon Laudrieu. Her opponent, a Christian Conservative, is a 1994 class Republican representative, Mr Louis Jenkins. Ms Laudrieu is slightly ahead. Her problem is that blacks do not like her for unstated reasons.
In Maine, a former governor, Mr Joe Brennan, a Democrat one generation removed from Ireland - his father fought the Black and Tans - has money problems in his campaign for the Senate. His Republican opponent, Congresswoman Susan Collins, has a stronger bank balance. It is a dead heat going into the last lap.
Senator Larry Pressler of South Dakota, Republican chairman of the Commerce Science and Transportation Committee who accused his Democratic opponent of being too liberal for the state, may be in trouble himself for being too conservative.