Saxby Chambliss received 49.8% of the vote on November 4th. His Democratic rival, Jim Martin, received 46.8%, with 3.4% going to the Libertarian candidate Allen Buckley. Last night was the runoff election between Chambliss and Martin, which both sides dumped a lot of resources into, including NRA into helping Chambliss retain his Senate seat. Chambliss defeated Martin 57.4% to 42.6%. Between November and now, he increased his lead by 13 percentage points to sail to re-election in a landslide victory.
Aside from preserving a filibuster for Republicans, it will also serve as a warning to Democrats that their victory may be a lot more pyrrhic than they might like to imagine. Without Obama’s coattails to ride in the midterm election, Democrats might find themselves in serious trouble in 2010 if they overreach. The Republican Party is down, but not out, and Pelosi, Reid and Obama govern to the left at their peril. A third effect this will likely have is to decrease the likelihood the Democrats will up the ante in the Coleman/Franken election, since with Chambliss’ victory, it doesn’t matter as much now.
This is a good victory. A shot across the bow of the Democrats from the people of Georgia. We are down, but not out. On to 2010.
Hurrah! I’ll have to catch Boortz in the morning to get all the wonderful details.
I heard Saxby Chambliss mention in a speech just this morning that he won’t support Obama’s attempts to “tinker” with the second amendment. That was one of the few times during this election season that I have heard a politician make any references to the second amendment.
I’m in Georgia. The NRA saved Saxby’s arse. They dumped a tremendous amount of resources here. I got 2 orange postcards, 4 personal calls to vote, and a bunch of pro-gun literature. They did not hold back.
To be honest, if the NRA and NumbersUSA had not supported Saxby, I would have sat out the election. Saxby has been a little Bush-ite (big government, pro-Amnesty, pro-corporate welfare, DC insider). From my other gun friends, they felt the same way.
Hopefully, DC is aware of the power of the gun vote. Hopefully, the Republicans end supporting gun control candidates like John “gun show loophole’ mccain.
I liked how Sarah “She drug down the ticket” Palin went down there and rocked the house.
The media really, really don’t like her, do they?
Of course they don’t — she’s a serious threat to the progressive agenda. Nothing worse than a true believer who is likable and respectable.
You are welcome from the people of the great state of Georgia.
Let’s see; since 2006 you have lost 12 Senate seats and almost 60 seats in the House.
A virtual political unknown takes on the incumbent Senator in GA–a formerly deep red state–and pushes the incumbent to a run-off.
And you’re touting this as a great win?
Sheesh. I guess you’ve gotta make lemonade….
BTW, please run Palin in 2012.
Please. I’ll even send her money.
Since when is georgia a Deep Red state??
Maybe to the media, but not to anyone who knows anything about the state.
As far as huge victory – well anything that ruins JadeGold’s day deserve’s to be celebrated.
I see Jade has his trolling motor all charged up.
It’s a bit of making lemonade out of lemons, for sure. But keep in mind that Obama left his offices open and fully staffed to help Jim Martin. Both sides dumped a lot into this election, because it had a lot of symbolic value, and the Democrats lost, big time. That’s not to detract from the victories in 2006 and 2008, which I think the Republicans richly deserved, but it should give the Dems pause if they are wondering whether this was a real shift in the electorate, or whether Obama was merely an exceptional candidate.
Oh, and Jade, you go on and keep underestimating Sarah Palin, along with the rest of the elite, Republican included. I think she’s full of surprises.
Whew… I was getting worried there, but the results ARE interesting… thx
Percentages can be misleading.
From the Georgia Secretary of State’s website (http://www.sos.georgia.gov):
On Nov. 4, Chambliss received 1.87M votes of 3.75M votes cast. On Dec 2, he received 1.22 M of 2.13M cast. That’s 650,000 fewer votes for Chambliss second time around, out of 1.62M fewer votes cast. Of course, Martin had an even bigger drop off, from 1.76M to 906,000.
A win’s a win, and the percentage lead definitely increased, just not sure how much to put into it given that huge turnout drop.
A dropoff would be expected for a special election. Numbers will drop off in the midterms too. The winning side is the one who’s numbers drop off the least.