Blood and Guts in High Stakes Congressional Races

Candidates running for the US Congress have turned to campaign commercials featuring zombies and centerfolds in a bid to win the highly coveted seats. Deborah Gembara reports.

Published

7 months ago

Categories

US

Topics

US Politics, United States

People

Barack Obama, Deborah Gembara, Nancy Pelosi, Scott Brown, Todd Akin, Paul Lindsey

Places

United States of America

Transcript

Think the Presidential race is fierce? It's downright genteel compared to the race for the U.S. House and Senate seats across the country where commercials feature blood and skin. A zombie theme for an ad attacking Democrat Nancy Pelosi and a commercial attacking Republican Senator Scott Brown. All 435 seats in the House of Representative and one-third of the Senate seats, 33 of them, are up for grabs. Democrats are looking to hold onto their majority in the Senate and win back the House. This after President Barack Obama saw his own agenda stymied when Republicans took control of the House. And if Paul Lindsey of the Republican Congressional Campaign has his way, the last congressional election was just laying the groundwork. SOUNDBITE: Paul Lindsey, a representative of the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee saying: "We started out this election cycle with a goal to pick up where we left off in 2010, to remain on offense against House Democrats and, at this point, we've certainly been successful in doing so in a number of states throughout the country." ...Sometimes the congressional races can complicate matters for White House hopefuls... Mitt Romney saw his campaign temporarily hijacked by fellow Republican Todd Akin's controversial comments about rape. The Missouri Senate hopeful put out this apology. (SOUNDBITE) (English) TODD AKIN, REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE FOR U.S. SENATE IN MISSOURI, SAYING: "Rape is an evil act. I used the wrong words in the wrong way and for that I apologize." It's all part of a system of checks and balances guaranteeing that the President or those aspiring to it, will at some point have to answer to both their own party and the opposition.