Initiatives seen key to some U.S. Congress races

LOS ANGELES, Nov 7 (Reuters) Votes on divisive issues from gay marriage to stem cell research may decide control of the next US Congress if state initiatives bring out voters in some of the tightest races today.

A host of hotly contested races for Senate and House of Representatives seats are in states with ballot issues that have become battle cries and may motivate potential voters who otherwise might stay home.

''I urge Christians to make their voices heard,'' Jerry Falwell, a prominent Christian conservative, said in a recent newsletter on his Web site, exhorting followers to go to the polls in states where amendments that would outlaw gay marriage are up for consideration.

''Let's get out and vote,'' he said.

Eight states will decide such measures today.

Tobacco and smoking taxes, abortion, property rights and minimum wage levels also will be considered in various forms by a number of states.

Voters will decide 205 ballot propositions in 37 states, according to the the University of Southern California's Initiative and Referendum Institute.

Control of both houses of Congress is up for grabs and politicians have been using ballot initiatives as a calculated strategy to get out the vote and to influence debates, said Institute President John Matsusaka.

''They are actually trying to affect who controls the Congress,'' he said, pointing in particular to minimum wage raises promoted by Democrats.

In Missouri, one of the closest Senate races, a minimum wage proposal is on the ballot as well as one on stem cell research.

Democrat Claire McCaskill supports embryonic stem cell research while rival Sen. Jim Talent said he supported some forms of research but not others.

''Where you have very closely contested races, as in the House or Senate this year, ballot measures either through turnout or affecting the issues people think about, could have a decisive roll,'' said Stephen Nicholson, a political science professor at the University of California, Merced, who has written a book on the subject.

Some issues may have mostly symbolic value, however. Voters in Nevada, home to legal gambling and prostitution, will decide whether to de-criminalise marijuana.

''The proposed amendments would have no effect on federal laws that prohibit the sale, possession, use and transport of marijuana,'' a state voter guide adds.

REUTERS PB PM1753