Update: Chambliss Wins Georgia Senate Runoff

dave

Dave

Contributor
Posted:
12/2/08
From the Georgia Secretary of State, 65% reporting, and Chambliss is leading by almost 300,000 votes 60 to 40%.

Georgia watchers will note that most of Fulton and half of populous Dekalb county is still out and it's been going to Martin by 2-1, but at this point I don't think there will be enough votes there to close the extremely large gap, after noting that Exurban Atlanta counties of Cobb and Gwinnett have some significant returns yet to come in.

If this holds, and again, I think it will, it will underscore that Obama had a very good coattail effect in Georgia, and his absence on the ticket is very much missed on the Democratic side. The silver lining for the Republicans will be that they are up against a one man phenomenon and not a major realignment of the red state/blue state divide.

--Stay tuned for updates.

9:06 pm - CNN Projects Chambliss is the winner. Still leading by 20 points with 77% of the vote in. 60 seat filibuster for Democrats officially out of reach. Democratic ticket without Obama reverts to historical norms in a Republican area.

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9:55 - 92% in and a 57 - 42 point lead. One more thought for the night, and this will be the hot speculation tomorrow: A possible Palin effect? She did do four appearances yesterday. There will be some who will take it that she now has kingmaker status. I'm not ready to go there at all, but I think we can safely and easily say that she certainly didn't hurt herself by associating with a big GOP save here. Also that Chambliss is probably quite happy he had her stop by.

Another safe bet: She will be getting more invites in the future.

Ludacris effect? Not so much.