8th District poll shows close race

Just one week before the election a new poll finds candidates in the 8th District locked in a very tight race. The Survey USA poll, conducted for Washington, D.C. newspaper, Roll Call, finds Congressman Jim Marshall leading Republican challenger, Rick Goddard by just four percentage points. The 8th District is considered to be conservative. In the same poll John McCain leads Barack Obama by 16 points. The poll looked at 700 registered voters. Most of them already cast their ballots. African-American voters could be crucial for a Marshall victory. The three term congressman leads strongly among them, and the 8th District is one-third African-American. In 2006 Marshall beat his Republican challenger by less than 2-thousand votes.

Survey USA poll:
http://www.surveyusa.com/client/PollReport.aspx?g=09f8180d-a6c3-4047-8bfe-c8e8e2d149bf

Marshall votes yes on failed bailout package

Of Georgia’s 13 House members that voted Monday on the massive 700-billion dollar bailout plan, only two cast 'yes' votes--Democrats Sanford Bishop and Jim Marshall. Marshall, representing 21 mostly rural counties in the 8th district, was quoted as telling some colleagues he was willing to lose his seat over his stand. He told NPR why he had to back the bailout plan.

"I don’t want to help out one wit the irresponsible people who have dragged us into this...whether it's the borrowers, or the lenders, or the investors or the Wall Street crowd. I don't care who they are. But this is something that's going to affect our overall economy and an awful lot of people I represent in the 8th district in a very bad way. So although it's very unpopular, I've got to take a different view and take my licks if that's what I get".

Marshall is in a tough re-election fight as a Democrat in the mainly conservative 8th district.