and control of both houses of Congress. ELIZABETH WARREN: You know, people told me when I got into this it would be tough. It would be ugly. It would be nasty. They said it will get personal. Then attack your family. It is tough out there and that's what they're doing but I want you all to hear me. I am not afraid. I am not afraid. KATHI-ANNE REINSTEIN, SENIOR MASSACHUSETTS DEMOCRAT: Scott Brown did the unthinkable. He put out a commercial that had John F Kennedy speaking and it morphed into him. (EXTRACT FROM SCOTT BROWN CAMPAIGN AD) Now being someone who is Irish Catholic growing up in the Boston area, this is blasphemy. CRAIG MCMURTRIE: Polls currently show he's running several points behind and the Massachusetts Senate race is one of several Republicans had been counting on. The party only needs a net gain of three or four seats to take control of the US Senate. But after a series of controversial comments by candidates, what once seemed likely now feels like a long shot. Harvard political scientists David King says the party only has itself to blame. DAVID KING, PROFESSOR, HARVARD UNIVERSITY: Republicans have almost uniformly, not in Massachusetts but in most States, nominated very conservative, Tea Party Republicans who are now seen as vulnerable. CRAIG MCMURTRIE: In Missouri Todd Akin horrified Republican strategist and badly damaged his campaign with this remark during a discussion about abortion rights. TODD AKIN, REPUBLICAN SENATE CANDIDATE, (AUGUST): First of all,