GOP leader: Chambliss in 'fight of his life'

Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss, talking with reporters about his election prospects and his Wall Street bailout vote at a press conference at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, Oct 2, 2008. (file/Dave Bender)

This central-Georgia military town outside Robins Air Force Base should be a cakewalk on Election Day for Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss. But ask people here if they support him and one finds surprising ambivalence, even hostility.

The mood has changed so much in recent weeks that Georgia Republican Party Chairwoman Sue Everhart says Chambliss is in "the fight of his life."

"I think he will win," Everhart said prior to Georgia's GOP Victory Dinner in Atlanta last Tuesday. "But not by the large margin we expected early on."

Once considered a safe bet for re-election to a second term, Chambliss suddenly appears vulnerable amid a wave of anti-incumbent frustration and economic turmoil.

"I think everybody is just so totally dissatisfied with what's going on in Washington now that we feel like you probably can't get much worse, so you might as well try somebody new," said Jean Hammock, a longtime Republican who listens daily to conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh.

His newly troubled candidacy is giving Democrats visions of approaching a 60-vote, filibuster-proof majority in next month's election, instead of just the four or five seats they had expected to take from Republicans. Democrats control the Senate 51-49.

Chambliss' "yes" vote for the $700 billion financial package earlier this month is the latest in a series of positions that haven't sat well with the conservatives who make up his base. He also faces a potential surge of newly registered Democratic voters excited about Barack Obama's presidential campaign, and a general anti-Republican sentiment after eight years of the Bush administration.

Without question, Georgia remains a GOP stronghold, and Chambliss is still favored over Democrat Jim Martin. The state supported President Bush with 58 percent of the vote four years ago. Martin would need impressive turnout — and perhaps a strong assist from Libertarian candidate Allen Buckley — to win.

But recent polls show Chambliss with a modest lead, but the race tightening. And Democrats relish the possibility of revenge against the man who, in a 2002 campaign ad, criticized Democratic Sen. Max Cleland's commitment to national security even though Cleland lost three limbs in the Vietnam War. Chambliss defeated Cleland with 53 percent of the vote.

Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, head of the Democrats' Senate campaign committee, said Martin and Chambliss are virtually tied, even in polls that Schumer believes don't fully capture Obama's effect on African-American and young voters.

"We're doing extremely well in places we didn't expect to do well," said Schumer. "Georgia was a surprise to us."

The Democratic committee, however, still doesn't list the state as a battleground, and so far hasn't put much money into the race. Schumer declined to say whether it will run ads in Georgia as it has in other competitive races. Georgia is "a state we're taking a very close look at," he said.

Martin has been running television ads throughout the state but trails Chambliss in fundraising. The Democrat has stepped up his attacks in recent days, criticizing Chambliss for his bailout vote and loyalty to Bush.

Chambliss said he always predicted the race would be tight. He knew he had not endeared himself to conservatives by supporting a compromise immigration package that drew him boos at a state GOP function last year and, more recently, championing a bipartisan energy measure criticized by Limbaugh and other conservative commentators.

He also was well aware of the political risks of supporting the bailout package. But he said Congress had little choice but to respond and try to contain economic losses. He's hoping sharp market declines in recent days will strengthen his case that action was urgently needed.

The senator downplayed suggestions that the bailout vote would make or break him.

"I've cast hundreds and hundreds of votes over the last 14 years," Chambliss, a former House member, told reporters before the GOP Victory dinner in Atlanta. "To say any one is going to cost me the election, that's just not the case."

At least one self-described lifelong Republican thinks otherwise. Ron Davis of Dallas, Ga., said he was so infuriated by Chambliss' bailout vote that he set up a Web site http://www.FireSaxby.com

"I never really followed politics closely. This was a wake-up call to me," the 31-year-old information technology administrator said.

Davis said he'll vote for Buckley in November, adding that GOP friends in his neighborhood are also disillusioned with Chambliss.

"I think he should be worried," Davis said.

(The Associated Press)

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Martin assails Chambliss over financial meltdown

Democratic Senate race candidate Jim Martin, talking to reporters at a press conference in downtown Atlanta, Sept, 16, 2008. (Dave Bender)

Jim Martin called a press conference to criticize Saxby Chabliss, and conservative economic policies.

Martin says Chambliss and other Republicans have ignored the conditions that led to Lehman Brothers’ closure on Monday, and the resulting 500-point stock market dive:

Martin came out against Chabliss, and federal financial policies in the wake of the closure of the Lehman Bros closure on Monday, and the resulting 500-point stock market dive:

“Saxby Chabliss has received 474,000 dollars from the financial interests for his campaign. He hasn’t been present to help with this.”

Martin says he wants increased regulation of the finance industry, and blamed the President George Bush, along with Chambliss, for the financial meltdown:

"This is just more of a fallout of the disastrous economic policies of the Bush Administration that Saxby Chambliss has supported the entire time he's been in the United States Senate."

Martin says that Republican proposals to lower gas prices ignore speculation in the oil futures market, and says he supports offering incentives to find alternative energy sources.

The Chambliss campaign accused Martin of using peoples misery and the economic turmoil to get headlines.

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Columbus man running for state rep slot

Zephaniah Baker (Courtesy)

Columbus native 31-year-old Zephaniah Baker, plans to run for District 132 as an independent on the November 4 ballot.

Running what he calls a “people over politics” campaign, Baker says he's calling for better educational opportunities, especially in the district's middle and high schools. He says he wants to create a more welcoming business climate for industry, that would bring, in his words, “high paying jobs,” to the area.

Baker says he started canvassing the district in January, and has received a requisite 990 verified signatures to be added to the ballot as an independent candidate.

Baker tells the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer newspaper that he's running, in his words, "for the post," and not against the current Democratic representative, Calvin Smyre.

Smyre is a 30-year veteran of Georgia politics and serves as House Minority Whip.

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Martin says he's ready to take on Chambliss

When Jim Martin took over Georgia's Department of Human Resources in 2001, some friends were surprised. Running the state's unwieldy social services bureaucracy is seen as a sure ticket to political oblivion.

But for Martin it was a no-brainer.

"I've always taken the hard jobs where I thought I could make a difference," Martin said.

Labeled "a nice guy" by friends and foes alike, the bespectacled Martin is soft-spoken and almost professorial. Even supporters quietly worry he lacks the fire to make a serious run at Republican Saxby Chambliss in November. Martin, 62, already lost one statewide race - the 2006 contest for lieutenant governor - to Republican Casey Cagle.

Still, Martin insists that he's the best Democrat to defeat Chambliss and that he's up for the fight.

First he'll have to get past DeKalb County Chief Executive Officer Vernon Jones in Tuesday's runoff. Martin pulled 34 percent of the vote in the five-man Democratic primary held July 15. Jones earned 40 percent of the vote.

Martin has been portrayed as the hand-picked candidate of the Democratic leaders in Washington. He only entered the Senate race in April after being lobbied by party leaders who also pledged financial backing.

But Martin said he's no reluctant campaigner. He held out, he said, because he figured former Democratic Gov. Roy Barnes might enter the field.

"I knew what it was going to take to run statewide and I was willing to take that on because Saxby Chambliss needs to be defeated," Martin said in an interview with The Associated Press. "If someone with the stature of Roy Barnes had decided to get into the race there was no sense in me getting in."

He won his first campaign for the statehouse in 1982 - a 10-way race for a legislative seat representing parts of Atlanta. He went on to spend the next 18 years in the Legislature, rising to chair a key legal committee, while also maintaining a private law practice.

In 2001, his political track changed when then-Gov. Barnes called Martin to tell him that the state human resources commissioner had resigned.

"I said well, governor you need to do a national search but I want to apply. And the line sort of went dead he got so quiet," Martin recalled. "It was seen as a political dead end. But I had a passion for all of those programs."

He took over the department in September 2001 and soon had to implement deep budget cuts as the nation's economy struggled in the aftermath of the terror attacks.

Martin said he worked to streamline department operations, such as child support collections, to save money and help alleviate the impact of budget cuts on the children the department served.

But Jones and other political opponents have criticized Martin for heading the department at a time when children died under his watch.

Martin responded by saying those figures stayed flat while he was commissioner, and that he worked to make the investigations more transparent.

Normer Adams, executive director of the Georgia Association of Homes and Services for Children, praised Martin's leadership of the department.

"He was instrumental in moving DHR into the modern era when it came to child welfare," Adams said.

Still, Martin resigned under pressure following the beating deaths of two young children in state care. The deaths came after child welfare officials had received repeated complaints. He said he has no ill feelings about his departure and is proud of his tenure.

He said it's that experience - combined with his campaign for lieutenant governor - that prepared him for the Senate bid.

"I am plenty tough enough to take on Saxby Chambliss, make no mistake about it," he said.

(The Associated Press)

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Carter political strategist dies

Hamilton Jordan, 1944-2008. Jordan answers questions at a news conference in Dallas on June 4, 1992. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan, File)

Hamilton Jordan, a political strategist from south Georgia who helped propel Jimmy Carter to the White House and served as his chief of staff, died Tuesday. He was 63.

Jordan died at his home in Atlanta after a long battle with cancer, said Gerald Rafshoon, a former Carter spokesman.

Jordan graduated from the University of Georgia with a political science degree in 1967 and became a key adviser to Carter during the 1976 presidential campaign. After Carter was defeated by Ronald Reagan in 1980, Jordan ran in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in 1986. He lost to Wyche Fowler, who won the general election.

Jordan worked for H. Ross Perot's presidential bid in 1992.

Later he worked with Unity08, an independent political group founded by independent Angus King, the former governor of Maine, along with Rafshoon and Doug Bailey, a former staffer on President Ford's 1976 campaign.

Jordan's family is planning a memorial service at the Carter Center on Friday, according to a report.

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(The Associated Press)

Democrats Keep Raking in the Money

New finance reports released today show Democrats are out raising presumptive GOP nominee John McCain in Georgia.

For the past ten years, Republicans have far out performed their Democratic rivals in raising money in Georgia, according to election records. But since his win in Iowa, Democratic Presidential front runner Barack Obama has out raised presumptive McCain by more than two to one, according to federal election commission filings. About half of Obama’s two million dollar haul in Georgia came from small donors.

About 20 percent of McCain’s Georgia money comes from small donors.

Candidate contributions are just one indicator of where Georgians are leaning politically. Another measure is polling, and there McCain fares much better than Obama. The latest survey shows the Arizona Senator up by thirteen points.

(Click on the hyperlinks to see the numbers.)

Columbus: GA GOP unites behind McCain

Sen. Chambliss addresses a sparse crowd of convention delegates at the Columbus Civic Center, on Friday, May 16th, 2008. Many more arrived for Saturday's session. (Dave Bender)

Georgia Republicans united behind likely GOP presidential nominee John McCain on Saturday and fired up their faithful members at the party's annual convention Saturday.

Delegates were selected to represent the state at the national GOP convention in September, and a steady stream of elected officials who took the podium said the party needs to come home to its bedrock conservative issues from taxes and immigration to military might and gun rights.

"We've got some work to do. We've got some proving to do,'' said U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland of Sharpsburg. "The base didn't get lost. We got lost.''

Governor Sonny Perdue urged Republicans to avoid poll-driven "gimmicks'' and suggested there was a damaging disconnect between party leaders in Washington and conservative states like Georgia.

Recent contests in the Bible Belt that have elected Democrats "ought to be a warning around the South and around the United States,'' Perdue said. But, he later told reporters, "I feel very good about Georgia.''

Democrats made gains in 2006 by winning control of the U.S. House and Senate, but Georgia bucked the trend by electing Republicans to a couple of statewide posts that had been held by Democrats.

However, Republicans said they were not taking anything for granted, especially after Democrats cast more ballots in this year's Feb. 5 presidential primary than the GOP.

The main order of business Saturday was to select delegates who will attend the national GOP convention. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee won Georgia's presidential primary with strong support from religious conservatives and independents. But on Saturday, John McCain stickers were everywhere and nearly every speech plugged the Arizona senator.

The slate of 30 delegates and 30 alternates selected included prominent supporters of Huckabee, as well as other former GOP contenders including former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani; Fred Thompson, the one-time senator from Tennessee; and ex-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

Among the delegates were supporters of U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas. A vocal group of Paul supporters were also in the stands, according to the Associated Press.

Bickering on the floor turned caustic at times. One delegate demanded a resolution condemning abortion as "prenatal murder.'' Another participant had his microphone turned off when he criticized the war in Iraq.

"I've never seen debate stifled that much,'' said state committee member Brian Laurens, of Ellijay, who said he's been involved in state conventions since 2002.

Turnout by delegates on Friday afternoon's 2 p.m. opening session was light; many arrived later in the evening, and on Saturday. (Dave Bender)

U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss on Friday said he'd warned President Bush that vetoing the farm bill could hurt presumptive GOP nominee John McCain in reliably Republican states this fall.

"If they get turned off by Republicans it's going to make it tough for John to get those votes," Chambliss told reporters following his speech.

Chambliss, a loyal Bush ally who is running for re-election, said he told the president that that with his low approval ratings he should avoid alienating voters in agriculture-rich states in the South and the Midwest that have supported him.

White House officials have suggested Bush will veto the bill.

Chambliss, the top Republican on the Senate Agriculture Committee, defended the recently adopted bill from critics who said it is heavy on rich subsidies to wealthy farmers.

"That's ridiculous," Chambliss said. He said the bulk of the farm bill spending went to nutrition programs, like food stamps and school lunches. And he argued that individual farmers earning more than $750,000 a year don't qualify for federal aid, under the bill.

Chambliss was asked about the five-year $300 billion farm bill by reporters but he made no mention of it in his speech to the party faithful at the Columbus Civic Center for the kickoff of the state party's convention. Also missing from the speech: Any reference to President Bush.
Bush's dismal approval ratings have many election-bound Republicans steering clear.

Chambliss did talk up McCain and urged Georgians to unite behind the Arizona senator. Georgia went for former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in the Feb. 5 primary. Huckabee drew strong support from independents and religious conservatives.

Chambliss made a case for his own re-election to a second-term by issuing a dire warning about what the nation will be like if Democrats win a handful of additional seats in the U.S. Senate. Under Senate rules, Republicans will lose the ability to block the Democrats' agenda.

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(The Associated Press)

Smyre Supporting Clinton

Smyre

U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton received another boost from a prominent black leader today when the head of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators threw his support
behind her presidential campaign.

Georgia state Representative Calvin Smyre says Clinton has "the strength and experience" to bring about needed change.

Clinton is locked in a battle for the black vote with U.S. Senator Barack Obama, who is trying to become the nation's first black president.

That fight is heated in Georgia where blacks have made up nearly half the vote in the state's recent Democratic primaries. Georgia's presidential primary is February 5.

Clinton has already been endorsed by Congressman John Lewis of Atlanta, a hero of the civil rights struggle.

Attorney General Thurbert Baker and Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond, the state's only two black statewide elected officials, are also supporting Clinton.

Obama has the support of another pair of black U.S. congressmen from Georgia, Sanford Bishop of Albany and Hank Johnson of Lithonia.

Smyre has served for nearly 30 years in Georgia's legislature, where he has held a number of leadership roles.

He' s a past Chairman of the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus and a past President of the Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials. He is an executive vice president for corporate affairs at Synovus Financial Corporation.

(The Associated Press)

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Former Georgia House Speaker Tom Murphy dies

Tom Murphy. (Governor's Office)

Governor Sonny Perdue called him a "dominant figure in Georgia politics for more than a quarter-century"--words to describe Tom Murphy, who passed away last night at the age of 83. The longtime Georgia House Speaker had been in declining health for some time according to friends. He had suffered a stroke in 2004.

Murphy served nearly three decades as House Speaker, from 1974 to 2002. A native of Haralson County, the Democrat oversaw a time with five Democratic governors, right up until the time Republicans took control of both chambers and the office of the governor.

Details for state ceremonies to honor Murphy are still being worked out. All state buildings and grounds will have flags flying at half-staff, ordered by Governor Perdue.