Political Eyes Watch Tuesday Run-Off In Georgia
His Democratic opponent, Jim Martin, is facing an uphill battle based on early voting indicators. (Early voting began 19 November.) Both Bill Clinton and Al Gore have campaigned for Martin in Georgia.
Democrats have picked up seven Senate seats this election cycle, increasing their Senate majority to 58, the most held by Democrats since 1979-81. If Democratic candidates win in both Georgia and Minnesota, the Democratic Party will have a filibuster-proof majority, something that it has not had since 1977-79, when Democrats held 61 Senate seats.
In Minnesota, incumbent Republican freshman Senator Norm Coleman leads Democratic challenger Al Franken in the recount by less than 300 votes. The recount must be completed by Friday. Minnesota voted for Democrat Barack Obama in the presidential race.
At issue in Minnesota: between 4 percent and 5 percent of all the absentee ballots cast were rejected in the initial count. Challenger Al Franken wants the absentee ballots revisited; Republican incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman does not. The Franken campaign has hinted that it might challenge any decision that did not include counting these absentee ballots.
Turning back to Georgia, the last time the state held a U.S. Senate runoff was in 1992. In that contest, Sen. Wyche Fowler (D) polled more votes in the general election but subsequently lost to Republican Paul Coverdell in the runoff. In the current contest, it seems most likely that those voters casting Libertarian ballots would swing their votes to Chambliss, not Martin. Assuming that they show up to vote, of course.
And it's the "showing up" for a run-off that favors Chambliss. The state's black population turned out to vote in droves on November 4th -- 35 percent of the voters were black whereas the U.S. Census shows that only 29.9 percent of the state's population is black. However, current projections suggest that only about 23 percent of the run-off electorate will be black.
Chambliss is a freshman senator; he was elected in the 2002 mid-term elections, defeating Sen. Max Cleland, a Vietnam war hero and paraplegic. That was a nasty contest; Republicans ran a controversial ad linking Cleland to Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden.
Comments
WE HAVE MORE TO DO:
Democrat Jim Martin is in a runoff against Bush Republican Saxby Chambliss for the Senate seat from Georgia. Bush’s Saxby Chambliss voted against spending a few measly dollars to provide health care coverage for Georgia, and Americas needy children. But he supported wasting hundreds of billions of your dollars, and the life BLOOD of Americas finest on an unnecessary war in Iraq.
At a time when 47 million of you have no health insurance coverage, and over 100 million of you with insurance are just one major illness away from complete financial destruction. Bush and Saxby Chambliss voted to make the heart break of bankruptcy relief even harder for all of you to use.
You see, Bush and Saxby Chambliss, and his family don’t have to worry about their health care coverage. They have the finest health care coverage your tax money can buy for them. Courtesy of you. The American Tax payer. In fact, no one but the super rich can afford the health care coverage you the tax payer provide for Saxby Chambliss, and his family for FREE! with your tax dollars.
He supposedly works for you. But he doesn’t think you and your family should have access to the type of taxpayer supported FREE health care that you provide for him, and his loved ones for FREE!. Doesn’t that just make you BURRING MAD!
Vote for JIM MARTIN for US senator from Georgia. Vote for JIM Martin who will be on your side. Vote for JIM MARTIN who will work with President Obama and a majority congress for you. Vote for JIM MARTIN most of all for your-self, your family’s, friends, and loved ones. Vote for JIM MARTIN for a better America, and a better World.
Don’t let Saxby Chambliss make a chump out of you by tricking you into voting against your own best interest. Saxby chambliss is NOT! on your side. He’s not one of you. He is on George Bush’s side. And we all know what a catastrophe the Bush Chambliss administration has been the past 8 years.
Contact all your family and friends and do every thing you can to see to it that JIM MARTIN and GEORGIANS! take that senate seat back for Georgia, and America. No matter where you live in America. This is important to you. President Obama will need all the help, and power you can give him to try and fix this catastrophic mess that the Corrupt Bush Chambliss administration has created.
As I said before you will have to vote in overwhelming numbers to overcome the Bush Chambliss “Let Them Eat Cake” vote fraud machine. Vote early if you can. Then help everyone you can get to the polls and vote for JIM MARTIN. You and your loved ones don’t have to be Saxby Chambliss’s victims anymore.
I know you will get it done. Just like you did for President Obama.
God bless all of you
jacksmith - WORKING CLASS…