Parties open new fronts in battle for Congress

BILLINGS, MONT. —  Heading into the last days of the fight for control of Congress, both political parties moved Thursday to expand the battlefield, trying to revive campaigns that had been seen as lost causes.

President Bush traveled to Montana to campaign for beleaguered GOP Sen. Conrad Burns, launching a final midterm drive for Republicans in mostly conservative states and districts.

National Democrats announced Thursday that they were pouring $1 million into the effort to defeat Sen. Jon Kyl, the Arizona Republican who long had been considered a safe bet for reelection.

As those fronts open, many pivotal congressional races remain close. Democrats need to pick up 15 seats to win control of the House, six for the Senate. Reuters/Zogby polls released Thursday found that Democrats were leading in six of the seven Republican-held Senate seats considered most vulnerable, but only two of them by decisive margins.

The Iraq war looms large in closing arguments by both sides. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee today will begin airing a television ad criticizing Bush’s Iraq policy -- the committee’s first nationally broadcast ad of the campaign season.

“Tell Congress it’s long past time to put down their rubber stamp and ask the hard questions about Iraq,” the ad says.

In Montana, Bush continued his attack on Democrats as soft on terrorism and said he would not flag in his commitment to the mission in Iraq.

“The only way we can fail is if we leave before the job is done, and that’s exactly what the Democrats want to do,” he said.

The itinerary of Bush’s campaign tour this week reflects the defensive posture of the GOP: The president will be defending party turf in states he won in 2004, campaigning mostly in races that Republicans had not expected to be competitive.

For example, in Nevada -- which Bush also visited Thursday -- Republicans are fighting hard for a seat last held by a Democrat almost a quarter-century ago. The Republican candidate for the open seat, Nevada Secretary of State Dean Heller, was leading by 47% to Democrat Jill Derby’s 39% -- within the margin of error -- in a poll released Thursday by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

“The president is going to districts where we know that he can make a difference and where he knows that he can make a difference,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Tony Fratto told reporters aboard Air Force One on Thursday morning. “These are all very contested races. Each one of them we consider necessary for our strategy of keeping the Senate and House in Republican hands.”

Bush campaigned with Nevada’s Republican gubernatorial candidate, Rep. Jim Gibbons. In the wake of allegations against Gibbons that have surfaced recently -- including a cocktail waitress’ accusation that he assaulted her last month in a Las Vegas parking garage, and an ethics question involving campaign contributions from a defense contractor -- Gibbons’ lead has shrunk from 9 percentage points to 4.

In Montana, Burns’ political prospects seem to have improved. Burns had been considered one of the GOP’s most endangered incumbents because of his links to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff. He has also been hurt by his penchant for off-the-cuff gaffes, such as badmouthing Montana firefighters and condescending to a Guatemalan immigrant.

“The senator, he never makes it easy for himself,” said Montana GOP spokesman Brock Lowrance.

Just when many Republicans were writing Burns off, polls started to show him gaining on Democratic candidate Jon Tester. The Reuters/Zogby polling found Tester leading Burns by only 1 percentage point, well within the margin of error.

Now the national party has renewed support for Burns, buying $310,000 in ads Tuesday and helping coordinate the state’s first micro-targeting campaign to increase turnout among Montana’s 700,000 registered voters. Vice President Dick Cheney traveled to Montana on Wednesday to campaign for Burns, the second time since August.

In his appearance here Thursday, Bush tried to fire up Republicans by reminding them how important the election was to his ability to appoint conservative judges to the federal bench.

“America is better off because John Roberts and Sam Alito are now serving on the Supreme Court of the United States,” Bush said. “The people of Montana have got to understand a vote for a Democrat senator would be a vote against highly qualified judges like these.”

State party officials say they hope the visits by Bush and Cheney will spur turnout. “We’re doing everything we can to get every one of our supporters to the polls,” Lowrance said.

In Arizona, Democrats believe they see a sleeper race in the process of awakening.

For many months, polls had found Kyl with a clear lead over his Democratic challenger, businessman Jim Pederson. But the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee found surprising strength in a recent survey of people who had voted by early or absentee ballots. That survey of 594 early voters, who included more Republicans than Democrats, found Pederson ahead, 44% to 40%. On Thursday, the committee started $1 million worth of television advertising attacking Kyl.

Republicans disputed the survey finding, citing a poll of 4,020 people who indicated they would vote early or had already done so. That survey found Kyl leading Pederson, 47% to 38%.

Still, the National Republican Senatorial Committee helped finance a Kyl TV ad this week, the first time it had done so in this campaign. “You don’t take anything for granted,” said committee spokesman Brian Nick.

molly.hennessy-fiske@

latimes.com

janet.hook@latimes.com

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Hennessy-Fiske reported from Billings and Hook from Washington.