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The Reporters: US mid-terms

All entries by this reporter: Guto Harri

Dying to vote?


Polling stations are selected for their situation not for their suitability, so elections take some people into unfamiliar and possibly alien surroundings.

Schools, fire stations, church halls are the established favourites, and voting draws a different crowd into many of these establishments. The voting booths nearest my office were in the Metropolitan Community Church of New York. It prides itself on preaching an inclusive Gospel which is particularly attractive to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Not everyone casting their ballot would have qualified on that count but everyone was welcome yesterday.

Signs and instructions were displayed in Spanish, Chinese and Korean as well as English. Yet Catherine Green, greeting everyone at the door, was disappointed at the turnout. "This was busier than usual", she told me towards the end, but, "it was not as busy as we'd like it to be". Having got up at 5am to help facilitate the voting process, she was angry: "One of the things I object to is the number of Americans that don't vote. In Iraq people are proud of voting. In Australia you're fined if you don't vote. And it's a right that people are dying for today. It's a responsibility that people are shirking."

Play Nutville for me


"People come out to Jazz clubs ... to forget about political struggles." So said the thoughtful Latin trombonist a few years ago.

trombone_203.jpgMusic, said the man, "should be there for entertainment and for art's sake and to instruct, but politics should be kept separate from that act".

But that's not what he thinks these days. Last night at the cosy upper West side venue , Washburne dedicated a song to Nutville, making it clear he was referring to Washington, DC.

He urged everyone present in the packed room to vote on Tuesday, and though he did not name a party or candidate, he gave a clue by suggesting the process could be a "cleansing" experience. He dropped another clue between energetic bursts of song by backing the "peacemakers".

He tells me that 9/11 changed his view on the relationship between performance art and the so-called "art of the possible".

"As time has progressed and our political climate has changed, I couldn't remain silent anymore. I was compelled to say something, and the outlet that I have as a musician is a jazz club on stage or in a dance club on stage, so I take those few moments to state my perspective and move on."

I'll go back to Smoke to hear him and his SYOTOS band again - and if I'm not tired of the electoral post-mortem by then, I might even head back next Sunday to find out what he thinks of the results.

Strange space


I imagine that few of the candidates in this election have either the time or inclination to hang out in cyberspace, but half an hour on the vast social network offers an intriguing insight into the contest. "Bush is Bad" is the most popular political grouping here, with 166,969 members.
wesclark_story_afp.jpg

MySpace Democrats have more members than MySpace Republicans and has drawn more support than any other public figure in this category. An unavoidable one-upmanship affects everyone on MySpace because the website keeps a strict count of your "friends".

Politicians at a time like this could be forgiven for being paranoid about the numbers. But some will find comfort clicking on. has a cool-looking profile, 17,512 friends and a long list of people who've wished him "happy Halloween" as well as begging him to run for president.

has some similar pleas, one suggesting she should secure Obama has her running mate. A woman introducing herself as "carrot top" tells the New York senator she's "excited you're coming to my home town this weekend". Another simply wishes the former First Lady "good morning".

The most bizarre comment is directed at Republican hopeful . "Black Mary the Turquoise Desert" tells him she's "descending from above to give... a kiss of divine black female love". Asche Krieger assures the senator that he'll vote for him in 2008 whether he's on the ballot or not.
What I can't establish is how many of these sites are genuine. There's another on MySpace with 509 friends, who believes he's 31 years old. John McCain is 70. And the profile I found, curiously has only 189 "friends", including "planet" and "spider".

Perhaps the politicians are better off staying clear of this virtual world after all.

Crude credentials


Forget the economy, Iraq and other major issues in this campaign.

nall203.jpgA 32-year-old blonde in Alabama is appealing to the baser instincts of voters.

Hand over $50 to , and she'll apparently hand over a cartoon showing where her political heart lies - literally.

The 's candidate for governor doesn't have the money to launch a credible campaign at the moment, but she is drawing a lot of attention by focusing on her cleavage.

Her campaign is offering T-shirts and marijuana stash boxes displaying her plunging neckline with the words: "More of these boobs" over pictures of other candidates for governor (Republican Bob Riley and Democrat Lucy Baxley) with the words: "And less of these boobs."

"It started out as a joke, Ms Nall told the Associated Press, "but it blew up into something huge".

Vote early


Polling day, as we know, is 7 November - and a quick check of the calendar makes it clear that's still a fortnight away.

earlyvote_ap203b.jpgSo imagine my horror, waking up in Texas this morning to see a number of candidates casting their votes on television.

I wasn't dreaming. I just hadn't heard about the "" which began yesterday and ends on 3 November.

Texans clearly have. About a third of them voted early in the 2002 election and more than half did so in the 2004 presidential election.

This time, the numbers could be even greater. In alone, 9,000 people voted yesterday and many more could do so today.

"We no longer have an Election Day, we have an election period," said Republican campaign consultant . "Candidates have to peak and stay peaked for the early voting period."

Democratic political consultant Robert Jara, of Campaign Strategies, agrees.

"You used to build to Election Day. Now you build to early voting. It's like a constant, long-term Election Day".

Ali enters the fray


He packed a big punch in the ring and was as renowned for his soundbites as his boxing. would be useful in any fight. And the heavyweight legend has just entered the arena of the mid-term elections behind the Michigan governor .

ali_bush_ap.jpgShe is seeking to overturn the state's ban on stem cell research which many believe could help to find a cure for Parkinson's Disease which the former boxer is suffering from. Ali and his wife Lonnie have issued a statement saying the state's laws are too restrictive, that the governor has been hindered in her efforts to attract stem cell researchers and businesses.

Her team point out that her republican opponent opposes embryonic stem cell research. Though he supports testing on adult stem cells.

About Guto Harri


I'm based in New York, and since moving to the US last year, I've travelled extensively around the country, focusing on business and economics.

Before that, I was based in Rome, after spending more than a decade covering UK politics. As chief political correspondent, I followed UK PM Tony Blair around the world, and accompanied him on a number of visits to Washington and Camp David.

I was born in Cardiff and read politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford University before joining the 大象传媒.

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