Rick Santorum in Wayne, Pennsylvania
Photo: Matt Rourke/APThe Democrats have a good chance of unseating the Republican incumbent, Rick Santorum, in the Pennsylvania Senate race.
It's another state News blog will be following particularly closely, and we'd like to invite Pennsylvanians to post comments on the race as it approaches its climax.
Mr Santorum, who has been senator since 1995, has consistently lagged behind Bob Casey, the popular state treasurer, in the polls. Barring an upset, Mr Casey should win next week.
The third most senior Republican in the Senate, Mr Santorum is an electoral oddity - a hardcore conservative in a state that usually elects moderates. Pennsylvania voters seemed to have grown tired of his rightwing views.
He alienated the "grey vote" by supporting the White House's plan to privatise part of social security - the US federal pension system - turned off moderates with his support of the teaching of intelligent design in schools, and offended women by saying women who work are being selfish and only do so because they find it "empowering".
Mr Casey, who presents himself as a moderate Democrat, has used Iraq as a stick with which to beat Mr Santorum (who compared Iraq to the Lord of the Rings), accusing his opponent of failing to stand up to the Bush administration and call it into account for dodgy intelligence.
Shaun Mullen, at Kiko's House, finds Mr Santorum's efforts to cling on to power laughable.
"Leave it to a desperate Rick Santorum, the right wingnut Republican from Pennsylvania who is looking at the ass end of an ignominious political career, to scrape bottom.
"Santorum accuses his Democratic opponent, state auditor Bob Casey, of "abetting terrorism and genocide" by investing state pension fund money in companies with ties to terrorist organisations and states that engage in genocide. The proof? There is none. I just hope and pray that the remaining seven days go quickly."
But Mr Santorum does have his supporters. Skye, at Midnight Blue, listing reasons why he's good for the Senate and Pennsylvania.
