Foley Scandal Shadowing Campaigns

There's one question that every politician, pollster and strategist in both parties is asking: How is the Foley mess playing in Peoria?

Mark Foley is all over the news and affecting races everywhere, CBS News correspondent Gloria Borger reports.

If it's at the top of the Peoria newscast - and it is - you can be sure that Republican candidates from Boca Raton to Buffalo are very nervous.

Tom Reynolds is the House Republican campaign chief, whose tough race for re-election in upstate New York is now even tougher since he was among those House leaders told about the original Foley e-mails.

"When I found out about this whole instance for the first time in the spring of '06, I reported it to my supervisor like anyone would in an office situation. I took it to the speaker of the House," Reynolds said.

Then there's Republican Clay Shaw. He's been in a tight race all year. His Florida district is next to Foley's, and that doesn't help.

"I honestly think that those who perhaps weren't that informed or didn't pay that close attention previously, I think they're probably paying more attention now," one Florida voter says.

Friday, New Jersey's Republican Senate candidate Tom Keane threw Hastert overboard, calling publicly for his resignation.

In Columbus, Ohio, where the Foley scandal is a new factor in an already tight race for Congress, CBS News correspondent Lee Cowan reports that voters are simply fed up. The war and the economy were the issues being talked about there, but since last week, it's all about Foley.

"People would rather talk about scandals, rather than what's really happening, and what's really going on," Jack Steele, a Columbus stylist, told CBS News.

Both sides in Columbus are worried that, at the very least, the Foley scandal may affect voter turnout. There's concern that it may offer some kind of rationale for apathy from both Republicans and Democrats.

Meanwhile, most Republicans throughout the country, from the very top down, are simply trying to get back to their issues.

"Today, we got more good news. The national unemployment rate is down to 4.6 percent," President Bush said earlier today.

Democrats, for a change, are all speaking the same language, from their House campaign chairman to the ads they're running against Republicans.

Rahm Emanuel, House Democratic Campaign Chairman says, "You cannot change Washington unless you change the people you send to Washington."

This has been a long week for Republicans. In 30 days, they'll find out whether they're about to have a long couple of years. It will depend on just how much the Foley mess really matter to voters.