Certainly, the idea of influence and seniority resonates with many voters. Steve Cassano, the former mayor of Manchester, is supporting Lieberman and is pointing to the money he is able to deliver back home.

'If a new guy comes in, he gets a room in the basement and doesn't pass a bill for three years,' Cassano said.

By JILLZUCKMAN

WASHINGTON — Four years ago, while covering the razor-thin Minnesota Senate race between the incumbent Democrat Paul Wellstone and his Republican challenger, Norm Coleman, I met a man who told me that he was going to vote for the ultraliberal senator even though he was a lifelong conservative.

Why? Because Wellstone had helped get his father buried in a veterans' cemetery, telephoned to offer condolences and even sent flowers to the funeral. The office of Minnesota's Republican senator, David Durenberger, had ignored his call.

"I don't agree with (Wellstone) on anything," the man said, his voice choking with emotion, "but I'm going to vote for him."

Four years later, the two political parties are battling for control of Congress, and such hot-button issues as the Iraq war, immigration, gay marriage and government corruption are dominating public debate.

But even in this highly charged atmosphere, campaigns often still come down to one old-fashioned concept: What have you done for me lately? Incumbent lawmakers are making it a point to remind voters just how they have helped them in ways small and large.

In Connecticut, Democratic Sen. Joseph Lieberman is meeting a spirited primary challenge by telling people everywhere he goes that he is now a senior senator with the power to get things done. ("Even though I still feel quite youthful," he has joked more than once.)

Television commercials tout Lieberman's work to save the Groton submarine base and its 31,000 jobs from closure last year. Fresh off a victory on the Senate floor, Lieberman told voters last weekend that he had secured a three-year contract for enginemaker Pratt & Whitney, providing workers in East Hartford with a little extra job security. And his campaign Web site allows visitors to click on a map of Connecticut to learn what Lieberman has done for every area of the state. Voters who click on Windham County, for example, will discover that Lieberman helped send a $480,000 appropriation to the Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine to help farmers in Woodstock produce a wider range of farm products.

"It's a common theme that long-term incumbents use, that if you lose me, you lose all sorts of influence," said Ross Baker, a Rutgers University political science professor. "It's the incumbents' theme from time immemorial."

In some ways, the message gives Lieberman a way to avoid talking about the one issue that is hurting him most with voters: his support for the war.

Certainly, the idea of influence and seniority resonates with many voters. Steve Cassano, the former mayor of Manchester, is supporting Lieberman and is pointing to the money he is able to deliver back home.

"If a new guy comes in, he gets a room in the basement and doesn't pass a bill for three years," Cassano said.

Warning voters against throwing away the clout built up over years in office does not always work, as former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle discovered two years ago, when he was narrowly beaten by Republican John Thune.

Still, Daschle's former challenger called the argument highly effective.

"It's hard to run against," said Thune, R-S.D. "People look and say, `We want someone who can bring home the bacon."'

Not all members of Congress believe in securing pork barrel projects for their districts, the subject of much debate in the aftermath of the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal. Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., has been fighting the practice unsuccessfully as appropriations bills come to the House floor.

Flake tries to impress voters back home with personal attention. He speaks at local graduation ceremonies and, when in Washington, he frequently takes visitors from his district on tours of the Capitol.

He also believes that, during a campaign, just showing up is effective.

"If you knock on their door in 110 degrees in August, you'll have their vote," said Flake, who has been elected to represent his Mesa district three times.

Rep. Tom Reynolds, R-N.Y., the man in charge of getting Republicans elected to the House, has a saying: "No problem is too big, no problem is too small."

He recently arranged for a child suffering from a rare form of brain cancer to obtain medicine from Canada that is not approved for use in this country. "The job first and foremost is to take care of people," Reynolds said.

Just about every member of Congress helps voters with problems navigating the massive federal bureaucracy. Their staffs try to resolve problems with Medicare, Social Security, veterans' benefits and other federal programs.

"It reaps dividends in the sense that people feel they can count on you," said Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md.

A few years ago, when Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., faced a difficult battle for re-election, his campaign did a poll that showed 50 percent of those surveyed had had some sort of personal contact with the congressman.

And sometimes that personal touch is more important than a congressman's position on the war in Iraq, domestic eavesdropping, whether to privatize Social Security or anything else.

No one will ever know if the extra attention Wellstone gave his constituent would have helped him keep his seat. Days before the election, Wellstone, his wife and his daughter were killed in a plane crash.

Coleman went on to defeat former Vice President Walter Mondale — who had stepped in for Wellstone — to become a Minnesota senator. His official Senate Web site includes a map showing just what he has done for every corner of the state.

"For me, I think you get measured by what you produce," Coleman said. "I don't think being in the Senate is just being in a debating society.

Jill Zuckman is the Chicago Tribune's chief congressional correspondent.