Georgia Senate Runoff - Martin Loses

BREAKING NEWS!

Republican U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss defeated Democratic challenger Jim Martin on Tuesday to win re-election to a second term.

Chambliss and Martin — University of Georgia Sigma Chi frat brothers in the 1960s — faced off in a U.S. Senate runoff that has become the focus of U.S. politics in the wake of the Nov. 4 general election.

The Martin loss also prevented President-elect Barack Obama and the Democrats from having a filibuster-proof supermajority of 60 in the US Senate. Democrats now have 56 seats in the upper chamber plus two independents who caucus with them, with only the race in Minnesota to be resolved. Republicans vowed to hold Chambliss’ seat at all costs.

Each candidate spent millions of dollars and had a number of political heavyweights visit Georgia over the past fortnight. For Chambliss: Sen. John McCain, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Rudy Guiliani, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, and former Democratic Georgia Gov. Zell Miller. For Jim Martin: former President Bill Clinton, former Vice-President Al Gore, former US Senator Max Cleland (who lost his senate seat to Chambliss in 2002),

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plez sez: martin rode BARACK OBAMA's coattails to a runoff, but there was no way that martin was going to be able to generate the excite and turnout necessary to repeat the results from november 4th without Obama making a personal appearance and plea to his faithful. but rightly so, Obama decided not to expend the political capital on such a long shot (he did provide his ground troops and recorded a few robo-calls for jim martin).

the democratic party in georgia should've dredged up max cleland to reclaim his old seat... that was really their only chance to win the senate seat in georgia. maybe we're still a TRULY REDneck state!

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Read the AJC.com article about the Senate runoff results.

Read the CNN.com article about Chambliss win over Martin.

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