Bush Rallies Faithful for Key Midwest Senate Races

President Bush dived into two of the nation’s most hard-fought Senate races Friday, squeezing two rallies and three airplane flights into 10 hours as he tried to pump up enthusiasm for Republican challengers in Missouri and Minnesota.

With control of the Senate hanging on the thinnest of margins, Republicans may need to win at least two of three contests in the Midwest -- those in Missouri, Minnesota and South Dakota -- to emerge with a majority after the Nov. 5 elections. All three, where Democrats are incumbents, are rated tossups.

The president is turning the final phase of the midterm election campaign into a personal crusade, devoting much of the next 2 1/2 weeks to doing everything he can to preserve the slim Republican majority in the House and regain GOP control of the Senate, where the Democrats have a one-seat margin.

From state to state, his campaigning is built around a message intended to soothe fears about a struggling economy and terrorism at home, while stoking concerns about the threat he says Iraq poses to the United States.

His focus on Friday was the 10-year, $1.35-trillion tax cut that he proposed and Congress enacted last year.

The Democratic incumbent who Bush wants Missouri voters to unseat, Sen. Jean Carnahan, voted for the tax cut measure. But this year, Bush has been pushing to extend the tax cut beyond its expiration in 2010, only to have the Democratic-led Senate thwart that effort.

“We need to make sure, for the sake of economic vitality, for the sake of job creation, that you elect a United States senator who makes sure the tax relief plan is permanent,” Bush said in Springfield, Mo., as he touted Carnahan’s Republican opponent, former Rep. Jim Talent.

He made the same argument in Minnesota, where Democratic Sen. Paul Wellstone is being opposed by Republican Norm Coleman. Wellstone not only opposes making the tax cut package permanent, he voted against the 10-year measure.

Although Bush offered his tax cut prescription as the best medicine for an ailing economy, the top Senate Democrat sought to turn that argument on its head.

Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), speaking in Washington, said: “You’ve got an economy that’s in shambles as a result of decisions made by this administration.”

Daschle borrowed a line from another Republican president, Ronald Reagan, to ask whether Americans were better off today under Bush than they were when he took office less than two years ago. “I would say, unequivocally, the answer is no,” Daschle said.

At the rally in Springfield, Daschle was the target of GOP ire, as he has been during much of the campaign.

Two Missouri Republicans, Sen. Christopher S. Bond and Rep. Roy Blunt, ticked off measure after measure approved by the House and blocked in the Senate.

“It’s because Tom Daschle is playing politics rather than serving the nation,” Bond said.

Along with tying Carnahan to Daschle, Republicans have questioned whether she is an effective legislator, drawing attention to the unusual circumstances under which she assumed office two years ago.

Carnahan, a political novice, was appointed to the Senate after voters elected her husband, former Gov. Mel Carnahan, even though he had died in an airplane crash shortly before election day. The Republican incumbent that Mel Carnahan defeated was John Ashcroft, who then joined the Bush administration as attorney general.

In running against Jean Carnahan, Talent has stressed his four terms in the House. He gave up his seat two years ago for an unsuccessful gubernatorial run.

Missouri’s history as a swing state makes it all the more important that party organizations stir up enthusiasm for their candidates. For that, little can top a presidential visit.

“This race is going to be close no matter what. The campaigns are in the critical yet hard-to-see stage of getting the vote out. The parties are going to just have to shake the trees,” said Jennifer Duffy, the Senate editor of the Washington-based Cook Political Report, which tracks campaigns around the country.

In Minnesota, the Senate race is primarily about Wellstone, the former college professor who during his two terms has staked out a position as one of the Senate’s most liberal members.

“It’s about whether voters still like the quirky Paul Wellstone, a guy they disagree with a lot but respect for his commitment to principles,” Duffy said.

Coleman, the former mayor of St. Paul, is stressing his ability to “work across the aisle” with Democrats, Duffy said.

Bush, for his part, stressed the importance of having Coleman in the Senate to help the administration push through its plan for a department of homeland security.

The proposal would shift all or part of 22 federal agencies into one Cabinet superagency with roughly 170,000 employees.

Bush unveiled the plan in June and it once seemed likely to win quick approval in Congress. But it has become snagged in the Senate over the administration’s call for greater latitude in personnel matters than would be allowed by civil service protections.

“This is a big issue in this campaign. There’s no question where Norm Coleman will stand,” Bush said.

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Times staff writer Richard Simon contributed to this report.