Premature ejac-election

I saw this story on the BBC website about the US mid-term elections which was the standard "will they win this time?" regarding the Democrats- all fairly mundane until later on when it says the elections are on November 7 2006 - that's 8 months from now!! No wonder people are so sick of elections and politics having the whole business of electioneering (which I would say is completely distinct from the business of governing or running the country) running for a period of 8 months every two years (mid terms and general elections).