I don't have a suggestion for either one of them. Here are their dilemmas:

Yarmuth: His whole campaign has to be defined by blasting Northup for being a lap dog supporter of President Bush, the Iraq war fiasco, rising gas prices and a national deficit that didn't exist before Republicans controlled Congress and the White House. Now, if Yarmuth spends all of his time trying to beat up Northup, some folks will see him coming off as the bad guy who's picking on a woman while she's still grieving over the loss of her 30-year-old son.

Northup: Her entire campaign was surely designed to define Yarmuth before he could define himself. Northup has stacks of Yarmuth's old LEO columns where he supported gay marriage and virtually every other liberal cause. Northup wants to make him out to be a left wing nut who's out of touch with moderate Louisvillians. But if she does that, even if she doesn't personally appear in the TV ads, voters might think "Anne Northup will do anything to get reelected. She's more interested in herself than anything else. I can't believe I saw this same woman crying over the death of her son".

My guess is Northup and Yarmuth will both run aggressive campaigns believing that voters will understand that's just part of the deal. But it sure will be interesting to see how they pull it off without looking like "typical politicians."