WASHINGTON: Spooked by President Barack Obama’s low approval ratings, some of his fellow Democrats in tough November election races have begun their campaigns by distancing themselves from the White House and asserting their independence from Obama’s policies.

In what amounts to a survival-first strategy among embattled Democrats crucial to the party’s effort to keep control of the Senate, some candidates in conservative states Obama lost in 2012 are aggressively criticising his healthcare, energy and regulatory policies.

The group includes three incumbent senators, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Mark Begich of Alaska, as well as Natalie Tennant, who is seeking to replace retiring Democratic Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia.

Other Democratic senators facing tough battles for re-election have not been as critical of Obama, but have signaled they might not do much campaigning with him.

Begich and another Democrat up for re-election, Mark Udall of Colorado, have expressed scepticism about the idea of campaigning with the president.

Each of the Democratic senators is facing persistent criticism from Republicans who cast them as rubber stamps for parts of Obama’s agenda that are particularly unpopular in their states.

The growing distance between these Democrats and Obama’s White House was evident this week in Washington, where their responses to the president’s State of the Union address ranged from muted to chilly.

Begich said after the speech that, if Obama came to Alaska, he would be “not really interested in campaigning” with him, but would “drag him around” to show him how the administration’s policies have hurt the state by limiting oil and gas development and the issuance of logging permits.

Democratic senators are not the only candidates in their party keeping some distance from Obama. In Wisconsin, a state the president won in the 2012 election, Democratic candidate for governor Mary Burke skipped an appearance by Obama in Waukesha on Thursday. She said she had a previously scheduled commitment.

Deciding how to handle a president in their party whose approval ratings are down is a common quandary for candidates in mid-term elections. This year, the problem for Democrats is reflected in Obama’s sagging approval ratings after a year in which his healthcare overhaul got off to a rocky start, and critics have cast his policies as causing a decline in American influence around the world.

Reuters/Ipsos tracking polls on Thursday indicated that 38 per cent of Americans nationwide had a favourable view of the job Obama is doing, while nearly 53 per cent disapproved. A year ago, 52 per cent viewed Obama favourably and 43 per cent did not.

Obama and his aides have largely sidestepped questions about the efforts of fellow Democrats to distance themselves from the president, who will talk with senators at a Democratic retreat next week.

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said this week he expected the party’s Senate candidates to welcome Obama into their states to campaign. Democratic strategists, meanwhile, are casting the November elections as contests between candidates, not a referendum on the president.

“What those candidates have to decide, especially in those tough states, is how they are going to talk about these big issues like Obamacare,” said Democratic strategist Chris Kofinis. Senator Landrieu, who is likely to- face a difficult re-election battle against Republican Rep. Bill Cassidy, recently introduced legislation to allow people to keep their health insurance policies even if those policies did not meet Obamacare’s new requirements for coverage. Pryor, who faces a challenge from Republican Tom Cotton in Arkansas and is perhaps the most vulnerable senate Democrat up for re-election, seemed to echo Republicans’ criticism of Obama after the president’s speech before Congress on Tuesday.

Pryor highlighted his opposition to Obama’s push for gun control and additional farm regulations. Pryor also was critical of delays by Obama’s administration in deciding the fate of the Keystone XL pipeline, which would help bring oil from Alberta, Canada, to refineries on the US Gulf Coast. Pryor supports the pipeline.

“I’ve always said that I’ll work with the president when I think he’s right, but oppose him when I think he’s wrong,” Pryor said in a statement.

West Virginia Democrat Tennant, who has an uphill battle against Republican Shelly Moore to keep a Democrat in Rockefeller’s seat, has been criticising the administration’s regulation of the coal industry, saying it was eliminating jobs in her state.

“If the president wants to promote opportunity, he needs to rethink his energy policies. The president is wrong on coal and I will fight him or anyone else who wants to take our coal jobs,” Tennant added.—Reuters