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Runoff vote today will end fast, furious Senate campaign
Palin, rap stars rallied Monday for Chambliss, Martin
By JIM THARPE, AARON GOULD SHEININ
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Georgia voters returned to the polls Tuesday to settle a hard-fought U.S. Senate race that has taken on national significance. Polls opened at 7 a.m. and will be open until 7 p.m.
Both the Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss and his Democratic challenger Jim Martin have used big-name politicos and celebrities to boost turnout for the runoff, which could attract substantially fewer voters than the 3.7 million Georgians who cast ballots in the Nov. 4 Senate election.
Voter turnout was sparse Tuesday morning at Crossroads Presbyterian Church in Stone Mountain.• Find your polling place
Voter GuideCreate a sample ballot that compares candidates in today's runoffs.
But poll workers said the morning turnout was higher than they expected in a runoff.
In Decatur, a steady stream of voters passed through the Medlock Elementary School precinct within the first hour of voting. As of 7:30 a.m. there was a line of 15 to 20 voters waiting to cast ballots.
At Montclair Elementary School in DeKalb County, poll manager Pat light said she expected a very light turnout compared to other runoffs. By 8:30 a.m. fewer than 90 people had voted, and Light said she hoped it would pick up by lunchtime.
Chambliss barely missed getting a majority in the Nov. 4 vote, setting up the runoff.
A parade of politicos flocked to Georgia during the four-week runoff campaign — a political version of overtime — to stump for the two candidates. Former President Bill Clinton appeared on Martin’s behalf, as did former Vice President Al Gore.
Former GOP presidential nominee U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) came to the state for Chambliss, as did his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
Chambliss, 65, and Martin, 63, crisscrossed Georgia on Monday, rubbing shoulders with celebrities and the common folk as their bitter four-week runoff came to a close.
Palin, hitting the campaign trail for the first time since the Nov. 4 election, told thousands of voters at rallies across Georgia that the state’s U.S. Senate runoff is a chance to begin rebuilding a Republican Party by the McCain-Palin ticket’s loss to President-elect Barak Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden.
“It’s going to take rebuilding, and I say let that begin right here in Georgia tomorrow [Tuesday] with the re-election of Saxby,” Palin told 6,000 cheering supporters at the Gwinnett Center in Duluth, her last stop of a four-city campaign swing.
Martin ended his last day on the campaign trail at the state Capitol in Atlanta, where he was lauded by a civil rights veteran and a who’s-who of hip-hop, including Atlanta-based Ludacris, Young Jeezy and T.I.
Ludacris told several hundred Democrats bundled against the cold that Chambliss “is just about politics and not about helping the American people.” U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Atlanta) said Obama needs Martin in the Senate to help pass the president-elect’s agenda.
“We need him now more than ever before,” Lewis said.
A win by Martin could also give Democrats a chance for a 60-vote, filibuster-proof “super majority” in the Senate. Democrats now have 58 seats in the upper chamber, with only races in Georgia and Minnesota to be resolved.
Republicans have vowed to hold Chambliss’s seat at all costs, saying his reelection would be a “firewall” against Democratic excess.
Millions of dollars have been poured into the race by both parties, as well as by third-party organizations with a political bent. Much of the campaign loot has been spent on a seemingly unending series of televised attack ads and mailers. Ads were still running as voters headed to the polls Tuesday.
The Chambliss-Martin runoff was not supposed to happen. Chambliss had a strong lead in the polls until the economy tanked in September.
The few polls show Chambliss, who beat Martin by about 100,000 votes Nov. 4, with a small lead in the runoff. However, runoff elections are notoriously hard to survey because turnout is unpredictable.
Both campaigns have worked overtime to get campaign-weary voters to the polls in the aftermath of the Thanksgiving holiday. Some political experts believe turnout could be halved from the Nov. 4 election as happened in the state last major U.S. Senate runoff, which occurred in 1992.
Both Martin and Chambliss put hundreds of volunteers on the ground to call and visit potential voters and get them to vote.
Martin used Obama volunteers from the general election to boost his runoff chances. Obama cut a radio ad and automated “robo call” for the Atlanta Democrat. Obama, however, declined an invitation to come to Georgia to campaign for Martin, who voted for Democrat John Edwards during the state’s Democratic presidential primary, even though Edwards had already dropped out of the race.
Martin’s controversial vote became an issue in the five-way Democratic U.S. Senate primary where Martin was forced into his first runoff - that one against DeKalb County CEO Vernon Jones. Martin handily beat Jones and became the party’s nominee to take on Chambliss.
Chambliss, of Moultrie, first won election to the senate in 2002, defeating former U.S. Democratic Sen. Max Cleland. Chambliss had served two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives before that win.
— Staff writers Phil Gast, Ben Smith III and Dave Tulis contributed to this report.
www.ajc.com
Palin, rap stars rallied Monday for Chambliss, Martin
By JIM THARPE, AARON GOULD SHEININ
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Georgia voters returned to the polls Tuesday to settle a hard-fought U.S. Senate race that has taken on national significance. Polls opened at 7 a.m. and will be open until 7 p.m.
Both the Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss and his Democratic challenger Jim Martin have used big-name politicos and celebrities to boost turnout for the runoff, which could attract substantially fewer voters than the 3.7 million Georgians who cast ballots in the Nov. 4 Senate election.
Voter turnout was sparse Tuesday morning at Crossroads Presbyterian Church in Stone Mountain.• Find your polling place
Voter GuideCreate a sample ballot that compares candidates in today's runoffs.
But poll workers said the morning turnout was higher than they expected in a runoff.
In Decatur, a steady stream of voters passed through the Medlock Elementary School precinct within the first hour of voting. As of 7:30 a.m. there was a line of 15 to 20 voters waiting to cast ballots.
At Montclair Elementary School in DeKalb County, poll manager Pat light said she expected a very light turnout compared to other runoffs. By 8:30 a.m. fewer than 90 people had voted, and Light said she hoped it would pick up by lunchtime.
Chambliss barely missed getting a majority in the Nov. 4 vote, setting up the runoff.
A parade of politicos flocked to Georgia during the four-week runoff campaign — a political version of overtime — to stump for the two candidates. Former President Bill Clinton appeared on Martin’s behalf, as did former Vice President Al Gore.
Former GOP presidential nominee U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) came to the state for Chambliss, as did his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
Chambliss, 65, and Martin, 63, crisscrossed Georgia on Monday, rubbing shoulders with celebrities and the common folk as their bitter four-week runoff came to a close.
Palin, hitting the campaign trail for the first time since the Nov. 4 election, told thousands of voters at rallies across Georgia that the state’s U.S. Senate runoff is a chance to begin rebuilding a Republican Party by the McCain-Palin ticket’s loss to President-elect Barak Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden.
“It’s going to take rebuilding, and I say let that begin right here in Georgia tomorrow [Tuesday] with the re-election of Saxby,” Palin told 6,000 cheering supporters at the Gwinnett Center in Duluth, her last stop of a four-city campaign swing.
Martin ended his last day on the campaign trail at the state Capitol in Atlanta, where he was lauded by a civil rights veteran and a who’s-who of hip-hop, including Atlanta-based Ludacris, Young Jeezy and T.I.
Ludacris told several hundred Democrats bundled against the cold that Chambliss “is just about politics and not about helping the American people.” U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Atlanta) said Obama needs Martin in the Senate to help pass the president-elect’s agenda.
“We need him now more than ever before,” Lewis said.
A win by Martin could also give Democrats a chance for a 60-vote, filibuster-proof “super majority” in the Senate. Democrats now have 58 seats in the upper chamber, with only races in Georgia and Minnesota to be resolved.
Republicans have vowed to hold Chambliss’s seat at all costs, saying his reelection would be a “firewall” against Democratic excess.
Millions of dollars have been poured into the race by both parties, as well as by third-party organizations with a political bent. Much of the campaign loot has been spent on a seemingly unending series of televised attack ads and mailers. Ads were still running as voters headed to the polls Tuesday.
The Chambliss-Martin runoff was not supposed to happen. Chambliss had a strong lead in the polls until the economy tanked in September.
The few polls show Chambliss, who beat Martin by about 100,000 votes Nov. 4, with a small lead in the runoff. However, runoff elections are notoriously hard to survey because turnout is unpredictable.
Both campaigns have worked overtime to get campaign-weary voters to the polls in the aftermath of the Thanksgiving holiday. Some political experts believe turnout could be halved from the Nov. 4 election as happened in the state last major U.S. Senate runoff, which occurred in 1992.
Both Martin and Chambliss put hundreds of volunteers on the ground to call and visit potential voters and get them to vote.
Martin used Obama volunteers from the general election to boost his runoff chances. Obama cut a radio ad and automated “robo call” for the Atlanta Democrat. Obama, however, declined an invitation to come to Georgia to campaign for Martin, who voted for Democrat John Edwards during the state’s Democratic presidential primary, even though Edwards had already dropped out of the race.
Martin’s controversial vote became an issue in the five-way Democratic U.S. Senate primary where Martin was forced into his first runoff - that one against DeKalb County CEO Vernon Jones. Martin handily beat Jones and became the party’s nominee to take on Chambliss.
Chambliss, of Moultrie, first won election to the senate in 2002, defeating former U.S. Democratic Sen. Max Cleland. Chambliss had served two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives before that win.
— Staff writers Phil Gast, Ben Smith III and Dave Tulis contributed to this report.
www.ajc.com
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