Mood of gloom set to temper any Republican midterm success Democrat Pat Quinn campaigns for re-election as Illinois governor last month The US economy is growing at its fastest rate in a decade ahead of Tuesday's congressional elections, the kind of uptick that would lift any leader going to the polls in struggling Europe or Japan. But Barack Obama and the Democrats are facing only headwinds as polls point to a sullen US electorate handing the Republicans control of the Senate for the first time in eight years and lifting their majority in the House to the largest margin in half a century. The likely result promises a sharp morale boost for a Republican party which has been portrayed as stuck in an ideological cul-de-sac in recent years, reliant on a declining voter base of ageing white men. The broader mood of the electorate favours neither side, however. At the moment, when the US is taking back its traditional position as the locomotive of the global economy, Americans themselves remain gloomy about their country's, and their own, prospects. "I think voters are anti the Democrats; I don't think they are for the Republicans," said Michael Barone, of the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative Washington think-tank. The longstanding benchmark polls which track voter sentiment with the simple question - about whether the country is on the right or wrong track - have now been in deep negative territory since the administration of George W Bush. For a nation which has prided itself on its inveterate optimism and the belief that each generation would be better off than the last, negative sentiment about the future is the new normal. The parties" campaigns, as well a flood of often anonymous donations from wealthy business leaders on both sides, have reinforced the cynicism with a tidal wave of negative advertising. This midterm election will cost $4bn, according to the Centre for Responsive Politics, a record amount for a non-presidential year. In the small, highly contested state of Iowa, one local television ran about 20 political ads in a row. On his rare appearances on the campaign trail, Mr Obama has tried to counter the negative mood. "Despite all the cynicism, America is making progress," he said at a rally in Connecticut for the governor's race. But voters have not been buying the optimistic message from the president who has been placed front and centre of the campaign by the Republicans to turn a series of local races into a national referendum on his performance. The Democrats, by contrast, have been shunning Mr Obama, not inviting him to campaign in a single pivotal Senate race and, in some cases, refusing to say whether they have voted for him in the past. The voters" impression they are not benefiting from an economy that grew by a robust 3.5 per cent in the third quarter is borne out by data that shows household incomes are still falling in nearly all of the Senate battleground states. With Congress largely calcified in a stand-off between Mr Obama and Republicans in the House, the 36 state governorships up for grabs might be just as important as the Senate. "These races deserve attention, given that there are serious potential consequences for [healthcare] and infrastructure spending," said Chris Krueger, of Guggenheim Securities. At the heart of Mr Obama's health law is an offer of federal funds to states which expand subsidised healthcare for the poor and low-income workers under the Medicaid programme. The more governorships that the Democrats can win, such as in Florida, which is a toss-up, the greater the expansion of subsidised care throughout the country. The national political playing field will be reset almost immediately in preparation for the 2016 presidential election, a cycle when the Democrats" more traditional supporters are more likely to vote. Both sides point to trends which they claim augur well - the Republicans" strong showing in Colorado and Iowa, two states which the Democrats have heavily invested in to try to lock them down in presidential contests. The Democrats have been heartened by their resurgence in Georgia in the south, where the party's influence otherwise mostly continues to wane. The other possible silver lining for the Democrats is that any Republican victory will be built on their traditional base, not by expanding it to the groups which shunned them in 2012. "Republican successes in 2014 will be an albatross for 2016," said Neera Tanden, who heads the most important democratic-aligned think-tank, the Centre for American Progress, "Rather than trying to broaden their base and appeal to a growing and changing electorate," she wrote in a co-authored article, "Republican candidates and allied groups have doubled down on narrow, unpopular positions at the expense of their long-term success."