Chambliss wins
During the Nov. 4 general election, neither Chambliss nor Martin grabbed the 50 percent plus one majority needed to win the race, leading to a runoff election to decide the winner.
“The libertarian candidate is who we should be thanking for this runoff election,” said Charles Cooper, freshman biology major at GCSU. “He took a lot of votes away from Chambliss and the fifty plus one majority he needed to win.”
This election was not only important to Georgia, but also to the entire nation. Democrats are no longer able to have the 60-seat “super-majority” that would stop filibusters from being used in the senate, which according to the US Senate Web site is attempting to block or delay Senate action on a bill or other matter by debating it at length, or by any other delaying or obstructive actions.
“The Republicans have only one way ofblocking democratic legislature, and that is the filibuster,” said Justin Reeves, junior History major at GCSU. “Without a filibuster, we could see more liberal leaning policies and legislature.”
With all this on the line, many people across the country turned to Georgia to see how national politics played out.
“We probably won’t see another big election like this until November 2010,” said Mike Digby, Chair of the Government and Sociology Department. “Georgia is the ninth largest state and being a Senator from Georgia is something that comes with a lot of importance.”
This election also drew some big names to Georgia. Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin came to Georgia on Monday to campaign with Chambliss. Rappers Ludacris and T.I. came out to support Jim Martin. Senator John McCain came to Atlanta on Nov. 13 to campaign for his fellow Republican Chambliss. Martin is said to have asked President-elect Obama to visit Georgia and had former President Bill Clinton come as well.
“Having big names come out and campaign for the candidates shows you how important this election is for the entire nation and not just for Georgia,” Reeves said.”These big names could also bring out a larger voter turnout by getting people more interested in this runoff.”
Getting an endorsement from a big name could also impact those who run the campaign as well.
“Endorsements can also encourage your own campaign and the people who are working for you,” said Digby. “There is a lot of skepticism between political analysis about the importance of endorsements, but the general rule is that endorsements tend to not have that big of an impact on the campaign. But who knows what we could see in this election.”
After an election that saw a record number of voters show up to the polls, this runoff could draw much smaller numbers.
“Voter turnout will most likely drop in comparison to the presidential election,” said Digby. “The only situation like this that we have to compare this to is a senate runoff in 1992 in which the voter turnout was barely half but I don’t expect this one will be that low.”
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Dec 5 2008. Filed under News.
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