NEW YORK: With less than two weeks to go in a bitterly fought campaign, America's midterm elections have turned into one of the dirtiest and most negative fights in recent history.

A slew of 'attack ads' has hit airwaves across the country as rival candidates seek to claw back points in the polls. And one key theme has emerged in many of them. It is not Iraq. Or terrorism. It is sex.

Candidates have been accused of using sex phone lines, going to Playboy parties, writing books that encourage paedophilia, assaulting their ex-lovers or paying for sex.

Most, but not all, the advertisements are Republican campaigns attacking Democrats, who appear poised for a historic victory. “These elections are probably the most negative midterms in recent memory,” says John Geer, a political scientist at Vanderbilt University and author of a book on negative political advertising.

There has been no let-up in the stream of sexually themed attacks. Late last week, in a fierce Senate race in Virginia, campaigners for embattled Republican George Allen issued lengthy excerpts from novels penned by their Democratic opponent Jim Webb. They contained graphic scenes of sex, child abuse and prostitution. “Webb's writings are disturbing for a candidate hoping to represent the families of Virginians,' an Allen spokesman said.

Webb's campaign retorted that Allen was simply launching 'smear after smear'. Webb's books are historical novels, often set in Vietnam, and the candidate is himself a decorated war veteran.

Many other examples of sex-themed attack ads have sprung up. In New York a Republican group ran an advert accusing Democrat Michael Arcuri of using taxpayers' money to ring sex lines.

In language not often seen in political debate, the advert has an actress posing as a sex line operator say: “Hi sexy, you've reached the one-on-one fantasy line.” In fact, an Arcuri staffer had simply dialled a wrong number while trying to get through to the New York division of the Department of Criminal Justice.

The traffic is not all one way, however. Democrats have attacked Pennsylvania Republican Don Sherwood with allegations from a former mistress that he tried to choke her. They are also running TV ads against New York Republican John Sweeney for attending a fraternity party that show a mock Sweeney dancing with young girls like a lecherous old man.

Even in a political process used to scandal-mongering, the huge emphasis on sex is a new development. 'A lot of this stuff on sex is new. Sex sells this year,' said Geer.

Experts believe that the huge emphasis on negative adverts in this campaign has its roots in several causes. Study after study shows that negative ads are far more effective than positive ones and so in a tight race campaigns are much more likely to use them. As there is so much at stake in this year's midterms, the emphasis on attack has been there from the beginning. Also, neither side has much of a serious agenda on which to campaign: the Republicans have seen President George W Bush's second term fall apart in a wave of scandals, while Democrats have failed to provide a unified opposition on many issues, especially crucial topics such as Iraq and immigration.

But the negative adverts are not just attacking on the issue of real or perceived sexual indiscretions. They are also attacking on the issue of race. In Tennessee, the black Democrat Harold Ford has been the target of an attack ad that was so controversial that even the opposing Republican candidate tried to distance himself from it. The ad listed a long line of personal attacks on Ford before showing a blonde white woman who reminisces about meeting Ford at a Playboy party and then winks at the camera, saying 'Harold -- call me!'

The advert outraged many because it plays to an old racial/sexual stereotype that still has a powerful resonance in southern states such as Tennessee: accusations of sexual relationships between black men and white women were often used as excuses for lynchings in the Deep South. The ad also comes at a time when some senior Republicans have publicly disavowed a previous 'Southern strategy' of deliberately courting whites.

Yet that progressive move has apparently been reversed because the midterms have become so tight. A spokesman for the Republican National Committee said the accusations of racism were 'not fair, not serious and not accurate'. But many experts disagree. They believe the Republican campaign knew exactly what it was doing by invoking race - in the same way as a controversial ad featuring a black rapist, Willie Horton, who had been freed from jail under a programme Michael Dukakis had supported, was used against Dukakis in the 1988 presidential race. 'That Tennessee advert makes the Willie Horton ad look like child's play. It is racist. That is the bottom line,' Geer says.

For many Americans, the litany of negative adverts is often depressing. Even when the allegations do not involve out-and-out sex, they are extreme. Democrats have been accused of advancing a 'homosexual agenda' and Republicans have even been accused of selling guns to child rapists. On terrorism, Republicans have frequently used pictures of Osama bin Laden. One ad, aired nationally, showed a variety of videos of bin Laden and other terrorists and a soundtrack that was just a ticking bomb timer.

Many experts see the Republican tactics as a measure of desperation. Democrats need to gain just 15 seats in the House of Representatives and six in the Senate to win control of all of Congress. Most polls have them in reach of their targets and the mood among many party strategists is probably at its most optimistic since Bill Clinton was in power. In order to prevent that Democrat takeover, Republicans have to mobilise their conservative base and extreme attack ads -- especially those on social issues such as sex, gay rights or abortion -- are often thought of as the best way to do that.

But Republicans do have other tricks up their sleeve. Bush's political guru Karl Rove is famous for creating a national network of activists geared to the final 72 hours of any Republican campaign. The network is primed to maximise voter turnout among conservatives and is generally seen as far superior to Democrat organisations, which rely on organised labour unions.

The Republican machine also makes far more use of sophisticated targeting techniques developed by marketing firms that identify their likely supporters and the issues they care about. Republicans have also raised almost $200m since the 2004 elections, almost double the $108m raised by Democrats.

But some politicians definitely have clean hands US politicians are keeping it clean for the midterm elections. At least germwise.

Democrats and Republicans alike are routinely rubbing their hands with sanitiser Purell after shaking hands with thousands of likely voters.

Many people in politics have become obsessive about using hand sanitiser,” the New York Times reported on Friday.

Out of the public gaze, high-profile politicians like Vice-President Dick Cheney rub their hands with antiseptic gel provided by an aide. Avoiding the germs of the public has become so common that now aides ensure people who greet their favourite candidate use Purell too.

Even President George Bush is reported to use the antiseptic, which claims to kill “99.99 per cent of most common germs that may cause illness”. “Good stuff, keeps you from getting colds,” Bush told Senator Barack Obama, at a White House encounter last year, after which Obama too started using Purell. Other prominent figures spotted using the gel include former US President Bill Clinton (during his 1992 presidential campaign after eating a pie with dirty hands); and Arizona's Republican Senator John McCain, (after observing former presidential hopeful Bob Dole's excessive use of it).

But not every US politician is happy about the practice. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson said it was 'condescending to the voters'. —Dawn/The Observer News Service