U.S. Senate Race: Palin, Rap Stars Rally Supporters
Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss and Democratic challenger Jim Martin crisscrossed Georgia on Monday, rubbing shoulders with celebrities and the common folk as their bitter four-week runoff came to a close.
| News Videos | Cartoons | Entertainment | U.K. | U.S. | Take Our Poll | Sports | World | Follow Us On Twitter
China to Work With Obama's National Security Team | Jimmy Carter: Respond to Zimbabwe Crisis
The former University of Georgia Sigma Chi fraternity brothers face off today in a nationally watched overtime election that could tilt the balance of power in the world’s most powerful deliberative body.
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin roared back onto the campaign trail for the first time since the Nov. 4 election, telling thousands of voters at rallies across Georgia that the state’s U.S. Senate runoff is a chance to begin rebuilding a wounded Republican Party.
“It’s going to take rebuilding, and I say let that begin right here in Georgia tomorrow [Tuesday] with the re-election of Saxby,” Palin told 6,000 cheering supporters at the Gwinnett Center in Duluth, her last stop of a four-city campaign swing for Chambliss.
Martin ended his last day on the campaign trail at the state Capitol in Atlanta, where he was lauded by a civil rights veteran and a who’s-who of hip-hop, including Atlanta-based Ludacris, Young Jeezy and T.I.
Ludacris told several hundred Democrats bundled against the cold that Chambliss was running for the wrong reasons. “He’s just about politics and not about helping the American people,” said the hip-hop star.
U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Atlanta) said President-elect Barack Obama needs Martin in the Senate to help pass Obama’s agenda.
“We need him now more than ever before,” Lewis said.
Martin bounded to the stage, flooded in spotlights and surveyed the shivering crowd.
“You’re not looking at ‘Landslide Jim,’ ” Martin said. “It’s going to be real close. This is about who wants it the most.”
Chambliss, throughout the day, expressed confidence that he would carry the day.
“The wind is at our back in this campaign,” he told supporters in Gwinnett County as he introduced Palin, who took the stage to thunderous cheers and an extended standing ovation.
Palin’s Georgia trip was her first campaign appearance since she and U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) lost the Nov. 4 election to Obama and running mate Joe Biden. The McCain-Palin ticket, however, carried Georgia by about 200,000 votes, and Chambliss brought Palin to the state in a last-minute effort to push conservative voters to the polls for today’s runoff.
Both Chambliss and Martin have used big-name politicos and celebrities to boost turnout for the runoff, which could attract substantially fewer voters than the 3.7 million Georgians who cast ballots in the Nov. 4 Senate election. Neither Martin nor Chambliss got a majority of the Nov. 4 vote in their battle with Libertarian Allen Buckley, setting up the runoff.
Democrats want to oust Chambliss and elect Martin to help secure a 60-vote, filibuster-proof “super majority” in the Senate.
Democrats now have 58 seats in the upper chamber, with only races in Georgia and Minnesota to be resolved. Republicans have vowed to hold Chambliss’ seat at all costs.
Both political parties and the outside groups that support them have poured millions of dollars into the runoff. Much of the money has been burned up on a seemingly endless barrage of televised attack ads.
Palin said Chambliss is needed to provide a check on the Democratic majority. She stressed Chambliss’ support for gun rights, anti-abortion stance and opposition to tax hikes.
Palin began her march across Georgia in Augusta, where 3,000 people lined up in the cold to get into the James Brown Arena for her 8:55 a.m. speech. She later spoke to about 2,000 people in Savannah and about 2,500 in Perry in Middle Georgia.
“The eyes of the nation are on you,” Palin said in Augusta. “We all have Georgia on our mind.”
“Sarah! Sarah! Sarah!” Augusta supporters chanted. One woman stood behind Palin with a huge red sign that read: “Save My Gun.”
Lambasted by many on the left, Palin is a rising GOP star among many conservatives. The self-professed “hockey mom” was mobbed at her Gwinnett stop as she waded into the crowd to sign autographs and pose for photos after her speech. Hundreds of people held aloft camera-equipped cellphones trying to get an image of the governor.
The scene was much the same at Palin’s three other stops in Georgia.
Penny and Chuck Ballas got back into Augusta at midnight Sunday from a trip to New York City. They found out Palin was going to be in town and got up at the break of day to attend Monday’s rally.
“I told my wife, ‘I haven’t even had my coffee yet, but I’ll do this for Sarah,’ ” Chuck Ballas said.
Penny Ballas said she thought Palin had gotten a raw deal from the media.
“She is a breath of fresh air,” said Penny Ballas. “She tells it like it is. She is not a politician yet.”
| News Videos | Cartoons | Entertainment | U.K. | U.S. | Take Our Poll | Sports | World | Follow Us On Twitter
