Richard Adams: Welcome to the Wacky World of the Us Senate Elections

There's the candidate who thinks lesbianism is so rife that girls need escorts into toilets. There's the candidate who accused his opponent of looking like Saddam Hussein's son. And then there's the candidate who thinks single mothers should be banned from teaching. Welcome to the wacky world of the US Senate elections.

While the world's attention is fixed on the nail-biting contest between John Kerry and George Bush, out of the spotlight a series of hard-fought state elections are going on. At stake is the majority in the Senate - a event that has huge implications, no matter who wins the presidency.

The Senate is currently controlled by the Republicans, who have 51 seats out of 100. Until recently they were expected to add to that majority, by taking the lion's share of the 34 seats up for grabs on November 2. Now, thanks in part to a string of Republican blunders, the Democrats spy a slim opening that may allow them to emerge as the overall victors.

In Kentucky, the Republican incumbent, Jim Bunning, was seen as a shoo-in before he began to self-destruct, a process that ended with him telling a press conference he was still mentally fit. In between, Bunning accused Democrats of assaulting his wife, denied using an autocue during a TV debate (before admitting that he did) and failed to turn up for a later televised debate.

But Bunning's biggest gaffe was to claim that his opponent Daniel Mongiardo, an Italian-American, looked like a son of Saddam Hussein. Mongiardo is closing on Bunning in the latest polls, portraying him as out of touch by showing footage of the Republican saying: "I don't watch the national news, and I don't read the paper."

Meanwhile, in Alaska the Democrats have a slim lead, despite the state not electing a Democrat senator for 24 years. The Republican incumbent, Lisa Murkowski, was gifted the seat by her father when he became governor - a controversial move that has now rebounded against the Republicans.

In Oklahoma a tough battle is going on, made bizarre by Republican candidate Tom Coburn repeating a claim that "lesbianism is so rampant in some of the schools in south-east Oklahoma" that schoolgirls are escorted to the bathroom. But then Coburn has also described the citizens of the state capital as "crapheads".

Even down south, the Democrats are making a strong showing in places such as South Carolina - thanks to Republican candidate Jim DeMint's bungling campaign and his odd statement that gays and single mothers should not be allowed to teach in state schools. DeMint later apologised for the "distraction".

The result is that in these states, and others such as Colorado and Florida, the Democrats may pick up enough seats to break the Republican grip on Congress. It's going to be a close-run thing, but there are precedents in what is known as "split ticket" voting. That is the propensity of electors to vote for a president from one party, and senators or representatives from another.

Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan suffered from such ticket-splitting during their presidencies - both saw their party lose control of Congress by the end of their term. The sting in the tail to any George Bush victory this year may be that many voters back Bush in the "war on terror", but vote Democrat in their own backyard.