Foley Scandal Tops Campaigns Nationwide

An unidentified U.S. Capitol Police officer changes the lock on one of the doors leading to the former office of former Rep.Mark Foley, R-Fla. House Republican leaders are facing questions of what, and when, they knew about the former GOP representative's inappropriate electronic communications with teenage males who had worked as pages. (AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke) (Lauren Victoria Burke - AP)

WASHINGTON -- Democratic candidates seized on a disgraced congressman's explicit messages with underage boys _ and House Republican leaders' handling of the situation _ to argue that voters should toss the GOP from power.

Their Republican rivals, in turn, are distancing themselves from former Republican Rep. Mark Foley.

"His unspeakable behavior should subject him to the strongest punishment under the law," Republican Rep. Michael Fitzpatrick, in a tight re-election race in Pennsylvania, said in a letter to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill.

Like a growing number of Democrats, Fitzpatrick's opponent, Patrick Murphy, called for Hastert's resignation, and challenged the GOP incumbent to seek the same. "Their willingness to look the other way during such despicable activities speaks to their character," Murphy said of House leaders.

Foley's abrupt resignation Friday _ as reports surfaced that he had written salacious instant messages to teenage boys who once worked as House pages _ shifted the focus of congressional races five weeks before midterm elections.

Disclosures continued Tuesday when Foley's attorney, David Roth, announced in West Palm Beach, Fla., that his client is gay and was molested between the ages 13 and 15 by a clergyman.

In the days since Foley resigned, talk of national security and the Iraq war has been replaced by the scandal _ for Republicans and Democrats. Control of Congress is at stake, with Democrats needing to gain 15 seats in the House and six in the Senate to take control after a dozen years of Republican rule.

"I'm hopeful that five weeks out, that it's a news story for a week or so and then it will die down," said Ted Welch, a Republican fundraiser in Nashville, Tenn., a state with a hard-fought Senate race. Welch said the GOP base in Tennessee sees the Foley matter "as just another mistake that Republicans have made, not dealing with it when they first learned of it."

Democratic Rep. Harold Ford Jr., faces Republican Bob Corker to replace retiring Majority Leader Bill Frist in the GOP-leaning state, and the party's base voters are crucial to Republicans keeping the seat.

Hastert said the party won't be deterred in trying to argue for maintaining congressional control.

"We have a story to tell and the Democrats ... in my view have put this thing forward to try to block us from telling our story, to try to put us on defense," the speaker said in a radio interview with conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh.

In races across the country, Democrats are working to make their case for change by arguing that the Foley scandal is symbolic of a Republican Party in power too long.