WASHINGTON — Republicans battling to stave off defeat in the midterm congressional elections are making clear that when it comes to their message to voters, they aren’t the “cut-and-run” party.

Candidates in competitive races from Ohio to North Carolina to Colorado are sticking with the time-tested Republican themes of lower taxes, an assertive national security policy, and devotion to family values. While the message has served them well in the past, it may not in 2006, when voters tell pollsters they have little confidence in President Bush’s policies and even less in the Republican-controlled Congress.

“We’re clearly looking at an environment today that is as bad as it’s been for Republicans,” Amy Walter, who is an analyst for the Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan newsletter in Washington, said. Republicans are using a rhetorical framework that worked in 2002 and 2004 on “an electorate that looks very different” this year, she said.

Republicans are laboring to repair the political damage from an unpopular war in Iraq and a raft of congressional scandals — most recently involving Rep. Mark Foley, who resigned September 29 after disclosures that he had sent sexually explicit electronic messages to former House pages.

Many Republican candidates’ Web sites, which are playing an increasingly vital role in mobilizing voters, focus on warnings about the possible elevation of Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi of California to speaker.

“Leftists need Shuler’s vote in Congress,”the Web site of Rep. Charles Taylor, a Republican of North Carolina, who is being challenged by former professional football quarterback Heath Shuler, says.

“After Shuler helps to install Pelosi on her throne, he will be benched by his party leaders,” the site says.”His mountain values would remain the stuff of stump speeches, not that of legislation.”

In Colorado, Republican candidate Rick O’Donnell’s Web site contends that his Democratic opponent, Ed Perlmutter, will join with Rep. Charles Rangel, a Democrat of New York, to raise taxes. Mr. Rangel is in line to become Ways and Means Committee chairman if the Democrats win the House.

“It’s pricey to be a Perlmutter fan,” the site says.”Ed’s lockstep with his liberal friends Nancy Pelosi and 36-yearmember Charlie Rangel. Together they’ve said they’ll increase taxes on American families and small business.”

A streaming video clip on the Web site of Republican Senator DeWine of Ohio criticizes his Democratic opponent, Rep. Sherrod Brown, for voting “repeatedly to slash funding for national intelligence programs” and opposing the USA Patriot Act.”I’ll keep fighting to keep us safe,” Mr. DeWine says.

A television ad by the Republican National Committee that began airing over the weekend on cable news networks takes a similar tack. The ad, titled “The Stakes,” features statements by Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden vowing attacks on the America. “These are the stakes. Vote November 7,” the ad concludes. These themes fit into a national strategy of painting Democrats as weak on national security and eager to clobber families with new taxes, Ms. Walter said. “The goal has always been to make the Democrats an unappealing alternative,” she said. “It’s just a question of whether it works this time.”

RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman predicts that it will. Republicans will retain their majorities, he said by e-mail, because in most districts, the choice “is between higher and lower taxes, and whether we stay on the offense while we’re at war or surrender key tools.”

Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean said the Republican talk of tax hikes and hasty troop withdrawals from Iraq is a sign of a flailing party.

“We always see the Republicans coming out, your country’s going to be blown up if the Democrats take over, your taxes are going to go up,” Mr. Dean said October 15 on CNN’s “Late Edition.” “They are desperate. The truth is we believe that we ought to increase the pay of average middle-class Americans and working- class Americans.”

A Washington-based Republican consultant, David Winston, said his party faces a “critical moment” as it tries to recover from the Foley issue, which forced Republicans off their message.

Republicans need to dominate the campaign dialogue on security and the economy, and “the Democrats aren’t going to sit back and let us do that,”he said.

Republicans will try to regain the initiative by highlighting a recently enacted law tightening port security, measures to improve surveillance of suspected terrorists and success in aborting an alleged plot to blow up airliners bound for America from Britain, he said.

They are also pointing to the 4.6% September unemployment rate, a five-year low, and a record high for the Dow Jones Industrial Average to counter Democrats’ claims that Republicans have mismanaged the economy.