WASHINGTON (AP) – Democratic candidates for the US Senate face a common problem as their party nurses fragile hopes of gaining control of the 100-seat chamber this fall.

From the South to South Dakota and Alaska, they are running in areas where President George W Bush is popular – and Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry not so much.

So much so, that Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle, running for re-election in South Dakota, is shown hugging Bush in his own campaign commercials.

And the National Republican Senatorial Committee already is trying to turn Kerry into a liability for one Democratic candidate.

“Flip flop, flop flop. Between John Kerry and Tony Knowles, there’s more flip-flopping than a sockeye (salmon) in Bristol Bay,” says a Republican ad criticising Alaska’s former Democratic governor.

Democrats must gain two seats to be assured of a 51-vote majority in the Senate. The parties are virtually certain to swap two of the 34 seats on the ballot – Democrats winning an open seat in Illinois while Republicans counter in Georgia, one of five Southern states where Democratic veterans are retiring.

Of the eight seats that remain most competitive, five are in Democratic hands and three belong to Republicans, and Democrats must win seven to gain an outright majority.

Of those eight, Kerry is seriously contesting only Florida and Colorado, effectively conceding North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Alaska.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has transferred millions of dollars to state parties for get-out-the-vote operations – US$1.7 million (euro1.4 million) for Alaska, US$1.4 million (euro1.1 million) for Oklahoma and US$825,000 (euro669,900) for South Carolina.

South Dakota holds the marquee Senate race of the campaign, and polls show a close race between Daschle and former Republican Representative John Thune in a state that Bush carried by 22 per cent at the points in 2000.

The hug – two or three seconds in length – is a videotaped image of the embrace Daschle gave Bush when the president spoke to Congress shortly after the Sept 11 attacks.