How 4 weeks changed crucial numbers in the Georgia Senate race
A quick postscript to our post earlier this evening on the Saxby Chambliss-Jim Martin U.S. Senate runoff election in Georgia that the Republicans won handily:
As calculated by a loyal Ticket groupie and all-around good guy, Ben Welsh: What a difference four weeks, some cold rain and the absence of an African American presidential candidates makes. (See news video below.)
On Nov. 4, with Barack Obama atop the Democratic ticket and John McCain-Sarah Palin atop the Republican ballot, the GOP took Georgia in the presidential race, 52.2% to 47%, winning by 204,000 votes out of a total 3.924 million. (Libertarian Bob Barr, by the way, got a little less than 29,000 votes, or 0.7% in his home state.)
No real surprise there.
On the same day in the Senate race, Chambliss, the incumbent, came in first, but not by enough (49.8%) to win. He got 1.867 million votes to Martin's 1.757 million. Trouble is, Allen Buckley, the Libertarian, snatched 128,000 (3.4%), just denying Chambliss the 50%-+1 vote majority needed to avoid a runoff.
Fast-forward to today's two-man runoff: No Barack Obama on the Democratic side. No Bush baggage on the Republican side. No Libertarian Buckley.
With almost all precincts reporting late tonight, there were about 2.126 million total ballots. Chambliss raked in 1.221 million (57.4%) to Martin's 906,000 (42.6%).
Game over for the Democrats and Harry Reid. Not even close. Republican victory.
Lesson for Republicans and Democrats: Don't schedule your Senate reelection bid during a presidential election year ending eight years of White House control by your party.
Lesson for Democrats: Figure out some way to get the African American voters to come out a second time for the white guy.
--Andrew Malcolm
Register here for an RSS Ticket feed. Or register here for automatic alerts to your cellphone for each new Ticket item. Either way, it's a victory for you.
Andrew Malcolm's immigrant parents repeatedly stressed the importance of active participation in a democracy. Early lessons included learning the alphabetical list of states by watching televised roll calls of national political conventions. That childhood exposure led to a lifelong fascination with politics, including 40-plus years of covering them and a brief stint practicing them as press secretary to Laura Bush in 1999-2000. A veteran foreign and national correspondent, Malcolm served on the Times Editorial Board and was a Pulitzer finalist in 2004. He is the author of 10 nonfiction books and father of four.
Johanna Neuman is a veteran Washington correspondent for both The Los Angeles Times and USA Today, having covered presidents and politics as far back as Ronald Reagan. A former president of the White House Correspondents Assn., she authored a book on media and foreign policy, “Lights, Camera, Wars.” Most recently she was co-author of the 
Subscribe to this Blog
Note, Libertarian Bob Barr endorsed Saxby on the final day, sending out a statewide email blast to all Libertarian Party members in the State urging them to vote Republican. Added to libertarian Repubican Sarah Palin's appearance on Monday statewide for Saxby, you could say it was the Libertarian-Republican alliance that put him over the top.
Let's hope Senator Chambliss remembers that next time he wants to vote for big government policies like the bail-out he backed in October.
Posted by: Eric Dondero | December 03, 2008 at 06:41 AM
I think we also have wonder about voters who switched at the prospect of one-party control of government. Voters like splitting government between parties and the goal of not ever needing to get even _one_ Republican to support you smacks of partisanship.
Posted by: David, Menlo Park | December 03, 2008 at 11:51 AM