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INDEPENDENCE, KAN. - In just six weeks, voters will go to the polls to cast their votes in the midterm elections. At stake is control of the Senate. Republicans believe they can pick up the six seats they need to retake the majority in the Senate, but now an unusual race in Kansas, one of the reddest states in the country, is threatening to upend those plans.

This is not where Republican senator Pat Roberts expected to find himself six weeks before election day...serving up pancakes with Sarah Palin in Independence, Kan., fighting to save the seat he's held since 1996.

"Every square inch of the Republican party knows what's at stake," said Roberts at a Thursday rally.

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The latest battleground tracker from CBS News/New York Times Upshot shows Republicans remain more likely to control the Senate in the next Congre...

Polls show Greg Orman, a businessman and former Democrat running as an Independent, has pulled even with Roberts.

"You know, I've tried both parties and I've generally been disappointed," Orman said.

Now a series of GOP all-stars like Sen. John McCain are flying in to help the 78-year-old incumbent.

"If it he's independent I'm an astronaut," said McCain.

"You have a friend in Washington, and his name is Pat Roberts," he said to an applauding crowd.

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Independent candidate threatens to upset GOP hold in Kansas

Washington In their first debate earlier this month, Pat Roberts, the embattled Republican senator from red-state Kansas, took out his rhetorical shotgun and aimed it at his challenger, Independent Greg Orman:

My opponent wants you to believe hes an independent. He is not. He is a liberal Democrat by philosophy. He has given thousands of dollars to Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and, listen to this, listen to this, Harry Reid!

Senator Roberts mentioned Senator Reid 17 times. But the Democrat from Nevada, who leads the US Senate, is unknown to many voters raising questions about whether firing off rounds about Reid will be about as powerful as using rubber bullets.

Republicans view Reid as a tyrant, blocking the GOP agenda and doing Mr. Obamas bidding.FromKentucky to Alaska, Republican Senate candidates argue that a vote for a Democrat (or independent, in Mr. Ormans case) is a vote for Reid. Cast your ballot for the Republican, and you can flip the Senate and dump the dictator, they say.

Its a strategy reminiscent of 2010, when Republicans turned disapproval of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D) of California into a national issue, helping the GOP win control of that chamber. But experts have their doubts about Reid as an effective weapon.

Most voters do not know who leads the Senate. Youre lucky if they know which party is in control. So trying to make a contest a referendum on a particular party leader is a tough sell, says Stephen Voss, associate professor of political science at the University of Kentucky in Lexington.

On the other hand, he says, even uninformed voters have a basic impulse to seek balance in institutions. When you have a Democratic president, they can sense that they need to put someone who is more conservative into Congress to counterbalance that, Professor Voss says.

That could work in a state like Kentucky, which twice rejected candidate Obama and where many Democrats have conservative leanings, says Voss.

Certainly thats what Sen. Mitch McConnell (R) of Kentucky hopes. The five-term incumbent, who leads the GOP minority in the Senate, often equates Democratic opponent Alison Lundergan Grimes with Reid (though even more often with Obama). Were the Senate to flip to the GOP and Republicans need to gain six seats for that to happen Senator McConnell (if he wins his own race) would probably be the new Senate leader.

Firing away at Reid could help excite the regular GOP base in Kansas, says Burdett Loomis, a political science professor at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. But in that debate earlier this month, Roberts mentioned Reid so often that Orman joked about it. It made Roberts look desperate and like a Washington insider, Professor Loomis says.

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'Depose Harry Reid' is rallying cry for GOP Senate candidates: Good strategy?

In Own Words: Democrat Maura Healey
Democrat Maura Healey is running for Attorney General. Subscribe to WCVB on YouTube now for more: http://bit.ly/1e8lAMZ Get more Boston news:http://wcvb.com/...

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In Own Words: Democrat Maura Healey - Video

41st State House, Alice Yoder, Democrat
WGAL and parent company Hearst Television gave candidates 60 seconds to talk directly to voters about why they should vote for them. Subscribe to WGAL on You...

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41st State House, Alice Yoder, Democrat - Video

U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron said he was recalling Parliament on Sept. 26 to vote on joining airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq.

The decision follows a request for help from the Iraqi government, and the House of Commons will debate on a substantive motion, Camerons office said in an e-mailed statement today.

Cameron, who is in New York attending the United Nations General Assembly, has the backing of his Liberal Democrat coalition partners and opposition Labour Party leader Ed Miliband for airstrikes.

When Parliament voted on attacking Syria last year, Milibands on-the-day decision to vote against action led to Cameron losing the vote. The execution of a British hostage by Islamic State, also known as ISIL, and the threat to execute another Briton, has made the case for military action easier to support.

In a televised interview, Cameron said action against Islamic State was legal and right, and British troops would not be deployed on the ground.

As ever with our country, when we are threatened in this way, we should not turn away from what needs to be done, he said. I am confident we will get this through Parliament on an all-party basis.

He said any proposal to join U.S. airstrikes against Islamic State in Syria would require a separate parliamentary vote and debate.

Cameron addresses the UN at about 7 p.m. New York time today, and will then fly back to chair a cabinet meeting in London tomorrow at 1 p.m. He is due to meet Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi before he speaks.

Weve already made the request for U.K. and for any other coalition member to offer military support such as air cover at the Paris conference, Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, speaking in Arabic, said in an interview at the UN. Were waiting for the details of the parliamentary approval the U.K. government needs.

U.K. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, confirmed his party will be backing the call for airstrikes.

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Cameron Recalls U.K. Parliament to Vote on Islamic State Attacks