Panama Wins Seat on U.N. Security Council
COLLINS: And some breaking news to tell you about at the United Nations. Panama has just won a seat on the U.N. Security Council. Interesting, because both Guatemala and Venezuela have dropped out. They wanted to avoid a deadlock there. This is the 48th ballot, been going on for a while. What they've won is a two-year term. It starts in January, January 1, 2007. They needed 120 votes but ended up with 164. So, once again, Panama has just won a seat on the U.N. Security Council.</s>HARRIS: Democrats and Republicans fighting it out in New Jersey. A Senate battle there is one of today's races to watch. To Hoboken now and CNN's Allan Chernoff. Allan, good morning.</s>ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SR. CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Tony. And talk about a dirty race. I just have this information. The Tom Kean Jr. headquarters this morning was actually padlocked and the campaign is saying this was a trick by the Democrats. I just got off the phone with the Menendez people, and they're saying, "We had nothing to do with this at all. This is actually a dirty trick by the other side." This is just another illustration of what's been going on here in New Jersey. I mean, this campaign has really been just over the cliff almost. The campaign ads that we've been seeing on the air, they've been relentless in attacking Senator Menendez, the Democrat. Tom Kean has been saying that he's corrupt, that he's under federal investigation. Senator Menendez has been denying that, and he's been striking back saying that Tom Kean's fund-raising has been suspect, and also saying that Kean basically is just a proxy here for the president. In the end, though, the senator is saying that he believes the New Jersey voters will reject all the negative campaigning.</s>SEN. ROBERT MENENDEZ (D), NEW JERSEY: You never want to have a campaign that is focused just on the politics of personal destruction. That's what my opponent chose to spend all of his time, all of his resources, over $7 million, in personal attack ads. The bottom line is, I think he'll see a rejection of that tonight.</s>CHERNOFF: Menendez is certainly ahead in the polls, although the lead has been fairly narrow. But the Democrats very much are hoping that Senator Menendez can hold on to his seat as they try to regain control of the Senate -- Tony.</s>HARRIS: OK, Allan, I don't mean to laugh, but this is good stuff. Give us -- before we -- I've got a couple of other questions. But before we go to those, let's get to the breaking news again. Another indication of how hard fought this race is. What is it again that is the charge and the countercharge this morning?</s>CHERNOFF: Well, they're saying, the campaign for Tom Kean Jr., who's the Republican challenger, they are saying this morning their headquarters office in New Jersey was actually padlocked with a chain. And they're saying that this was a dirty trick by the Democrats. The Menendez camp has just told me, well, they think this is -- this is just a trick by the other side. So, attack, counterattack. On and on we go.</s>HARRIS: If you're just joining us, I just had to have you hear that one more time. OK. New Jersey traditionally is thought of as a Democratic state, but, boy, show us this map that you have that indicates that it's not as blue as you might think.</s>CHERNOFF: That's exactly right, Tony. Of course, we always think of New Jersey as a blue state because the last time they elected a Republican to the Senate was 1972. But New Jersey has 13 congressional districts, six of them are Republican. And actually, if you look at the map of New Jersey, it appears that more of the state is red. But that's only because the red areas are less populated. When you get close to New York City, you get close to Philadelphia, those are the Democratic areas. They're heavily populated. So Democrats have seven congressmen from New Jersey, and they certainly have had a strong hold on the state in terms of this senatorial vote. But for Congress, because of all the gerrymandering around, these are very safe districts. So it's pretty much been sticking with the Democrats, with the Republicans for the House. But on the Senate side, certainly, it has been going to the Democrats. But this year, who knows. It has been a very close race. So this is an interesting race to be watching today.</s>HARRIS: Allan Chernoff for us in Hoboken, New Jersey. Love that late-breaking item. You can't make this stuff up. Allan, thank you.</s>COLLINS: The Capitol Hill page scandal, hard to know how much of a shadow it could cast over one race in upstate New York. CNN's Deborah Feyerick is in Buffalo for us this morning. Deb, what are people saying there about all of this?</s>DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Heidi, what we can tell you is that nobody apparently has been locked out here, at least not in upstate New York. The Board of Elections has told us that everything has been running smoothly. They had a couple of kinks. They were able to work those out pretty early in the day. And they had paper ballots standing by. So they say no votes were affected. Now, anecdotally, they are telling us that in this town and the town next door, voter turnout has been especially high. Again, this is anecdotally. They say this is the district where both of the candidates live. They'll have harder numbers later on in the day. Want to show you -- this is where a lot of people are coming in, a steady stream of voters all morning. The first ones coming at 6:00 this morning. When they get here, they take a look at this, they can see the -- who's running, what they're running for. You've got another polling booth set up just across the way. This is the way it is throughout the church basement. A number of people told us that they are really highly motivated. Some came because they always vote and they want to vote early. But others said that the issues on the table were significant to them. They are affected personally by the Iraq war, or they say that the Foley scandal did impact the way they decided to vote today. Some fear the Democrats will take control, others are voting for just that reason. Now, a spokesperson for the incumbent, Tom Reynolds, tells us that he is in a district, he's just making his way from place to place. No formal sort of logistically set out plan. He's just kind of seeing where he goes and where he ends up, trying to get his constituents to make sure they're on board. Members of the local press are staking out one polling place where they think he's going to show up later to vote. Jack Daniels, the Democrat challenger, he's a 73-year-old businessman. He already voted this morning, and we are told that he decided to go to the office, do a little work and make a couple of calls -- Heidi.</s>COLLINS: Hey, Deb, don't want to put you on the spot, but if you had to choose, of the people you've been able to talk to there, do they seem to be at the polls or motivated to vote this time around because of Iraq or because of the Foley fallout, if you will?</s>FEYERICK: You know, a little bit of both. We asked probably about a dozen voters just where they stood on a couple of issues, what really mattered to them. A number said that they were coming out because they feel strongly. This part of western New York has been hard hit with jobs. They want to make sure that there are more jobs, a better situation economically in the state. But another -- others said that they were affected, that they didn't like the way the war was going. Then, of course, there are those who said that they're just angry, angry at the way things have been going in Washington, and that's why they wanted to come to vote early, to make that change.</s>COLLINS: All right. Deb Feyerick watching things for us in Buffalo, New York. Thank you, Deb.</s>HARRIS: And how about this? After a hectic week on the campaign trail, President Bush up early this morning to cast his ballot. He and first lady Laura Bush voted at a fire station near their ranch in Crawford, Texas. After making his choices, the president urged all Americans to go to the polls and let their voices be heard. He returns to the White House later today.</s>COLLINS: Problems at the polls? Our Ali Velshi keeping tabs on precincts around the nation. We're going to be checking in with him in the</s>NEWSROOM. HARRIS: Already sentenced to death, Saddam Hussein is still on trial today in court. A witness shows his wounds. He says the former dictator is responsible. We will go live to Baghdad in the NEWSROOM.