Peach State Promises

No one, not even the candidates, expected Georgia would see the hottest Senate contest of '08. This Deep South state, which has not elected a Democrat in a major contest for almost a decade, was thought to have gone so reliably red that Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee chair Chuck Schumer struggled to recruit a challenger for GOP Senator Saxby Chambliss. In March, Schumer talked a former state legislator who had run a losing campaign for lieutenant governor into making what even Democratic loyalists saw as "a mercy run."

But a funny thing happened on the way to November: Jim Martin, a former legal-aid lawyer who had made expanding access to healthcare his Statehouse priority, rejected the apologetic stances usually adopted by Southern Democrats. Martin beat a primary foe who bragged about voting for George W. Bush, and then he ran a fall campaign that highlighted his commitment to bring troops home from Iraq, invest in healthcare and education, and, above all, "protect hard-working Americans from politically powerful special interests like credit card companies, insurance companies, banks and oil companies." Instead of distancing himself from his party's national ticket--a standard Southern Democratic practice in recent years--Martin embraced Barack Obama, whose campaign was making more of a play for the state than any Democratic presidential contender since Bill Clinton.

Martin's bet that Georgia was edging away from the old South and toward the new--going the way of Virginia and North Carolina, as opposed to Alabama and Mississippi--proved right. When the economy went south in September, Obama's numbers went up--nationally and in Georgia--and so did Martin's. Suddenly, the unwinnable race was within reach. And because of the unusual Georgia law that requires a winning candidate for statewide office to gain more than 50 percent of the vote, "within reach" was good enough. On November 4 Chambliss won 49.8 percent, Martin took 46.8 percent and a Libertarian, the remainder. That result set up a December 2 runoff that is arguably the most high-stakes Senate race the country has seen in years. At issue is not just the possibility that Democrats could secure sixty seats in the chamber--a prospect that requires Minnesota Democrat Al Franken to prevail in a recount fight with Norm Coleman and Martin to beat Chambliss. The Georgia runoff is, as well, the first test of Obama's mandate--and of his willingness to spend political capital to extend it. Perhaps more significant, the Georgia contest will provide as clear a signal as we've yet gotten regarding the extent to which candidates can or will compete as unapologetically "national" Democrats in a region that over the past quarter-century has become the GOP heartland.

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