"Georgia is about to become ground zero for national politics over the next 30 days.”
The results are not complete and there are no official announcements from the Georgia Secretary of State, but Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), and his opponent, Jim Martin (D), are gearing up for what they both believe will be one heck of a fight for Chambliss' Senate seat when voters return to the polls on December 2 for a runoff between the two candidates.
On Wednesday evening, the day after the General Election, Jim Martin's campaign sent a letter to their supporters asserting, "We now know that there will be a runoff." A similar message appears on the Martin for Senate website.
Chambliss' campaign is also anticipating a runoff, though the campaign's website has not been updated as of the time of this writing. But in an interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Chambliss campaign spokesperson Michelle Grasso said, "We are still in campaign mode until the last vote is counted.”
"Georgia is about to become ground zero for national politics over the next 30 days,” State Senator Rusty Paul (R-40) told the AJC in the article.
As one might expect, some of that attention could be coming fro the president-elect himself. "We have reached out and asked for their support," Ellery Gould, of the Martin campaign, told reporters.
Georgia Democratic Senate candidate Jim Martin addresses
the press Thursday Nov. 6, 2008, about the upcoming runoff
election in Georgia. (from 11Alive.com)
Jim Martin is using the tactic of emphasizing how important it is to elect someone who will support the agenda of President-elect Obama in the Senate. "I'm going to do everything I can to help Barack Obama get off to a fast start," he said in prepared remarks to the press today, "and Saxby Chambliss has promised to do everything he can to stop Barack Obama from succeeding."
Besides the obvious rhetorical reasons for his statement, he has one other motive. Runoff elections typically do not draw even close to the same turnouts that the general election does. What the Democrats want to do, is motivate those voters who came out to in huge numbers for Obama on November 4, since they are a big reason this Senate race is so close.
Saxby Chambliss' team, meanwhile, has to woo back the 120,000 people who voted for Libertarian Allen Buckley - the other reason this race is so close.
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