Your 2008 post-Election Day open Senate seat thread

I'm beginning to think we need this one.

Alaska -- Mark Begich vs. Ted Stevens. At last count, Begich up by 814. Begich's lead is more likely to grow rather than shrink, but a recount is still possible.

Minnesota -- Norm Coleman vs. Al Franken plus Dean Barkley as a sort-of spoiler. At last count, Coleman up by 206, recounting plans well under way. Final results not likely to be known until mid-December.

Georgia -- Saxby Chambliss v. Jim Martin in a Dec. 2 runoff election. And John McCain's in town.

Oh I hope Begich wins. It just seems so fundamentally wrong that Stevens could be re-elected.

Dude's been spreading money around since whenever and knows how to play the 'those people down south don't know anything!' game = I'm not surprised it's as close as it turned out to be.

i wrote this email and sent to it some friends & co-workers last week with some info on martin vs chambliss:

Hey folks. I'm sending this to everybody after Bobby sent me the special comment on Prop 8 - I figured y'all would be a good audience for it. It'll take a couple minutes to read - I wrote it up myself - but it's something that's real important to me, and important for everyone. Have a seat, look it over, and make up your mind for youself.

On December 2nd, Georgia will vote in a run-off election and decide if we want six more years of Saxby Chambliss or Democratic candidate Jim Martin. I'll be honest with y'all - I really can't stand Saxby Chambliss. He's a racist bully, dirty & corrupt as hell, took money from Jack Abramoff, his son's a lobbyist who influences how his dad spends your money, he's pushing hard for the idiotic Neal Boortz-created FairTax act (30% sales tax on every grocery and gas purchase while rich folks get taxed nothing on stocks and capital gains), and generally acts like the stitched-together Frankenstein corpse of Tom Delay, George Wallace, Strom Thurmond and Jesse Helms. We should do everything we can to make sure Jim Martin gets elected so he can work with Obama and get things going back on track. I'd tell y'all more about Martin but Jim's website makes a good case for him - go to http://www.martinforsenate.com/, have a look around at where he stands, look into volunteering or donating to his campaign. There's some stuff you should know about Saxby though, and I've made a list for y'all to run down and see if you can stand 6 more years of this, to show you what's really at stake here.

First up here's some ratings for Saxby on some issues you may care about:

* NARAL Pro-Choice America and the National Right to Life Committee both give him a rating of 0% and identify him as having a strong anti-choice voting record with intent to criminalize women's reproductive rights.

* Rated "F" by the National Education Association, indicating a Very Poor record on education.

* Rated 0% by the HRC, indicating an anti-gay-rights stance.

* Rated 0% by the CTJ, indicating opposition to progressive taxation and opposition to the working and middle class.

* Rated 7% out of 100 on civil liberties and civil rights issues by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

* Rated 0% by the AU, indicating opposition to church-state separation.

Here's a quick run-down of some of Saxby's greatest hits:

* In 2002, Chambliss, who never served in the military, ran a dirty, nasty-ass campaign against triple-amputee war veteran Democrat Max Cleland, morphing his face into Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden in a commercial and questioning his patriotism. John McCain said, "It's worse than disgraceful, it's reprehensible;" Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska said the ads were "beyond offensive to me." Of course that was the old John McCain, the new John McCain will be down here next week to campaign for him. If you need one reason to make sure Saxby loses on the 2nd, do it for Max Cleland.

* Saxby uses the military and veterans as props in his dishonest, slimy campaign, but voted against a GI Bill to give education benefits to veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, voted twice against allowing soldiers to spend time with their families between tours, voted against body armor and bullet-proof vests for troops in Iraq, and voted TWENTY-THREE TIMES against health care funding for veterans.

* Back in 2001, Chambliss was heavily criticized for telling emergency responders in Valdosta, Georgia that they should "turn the sheriff loose and arrest every Muslim that crosses the state line".

* Saxby lied on behalf of Imperial Sugar, a donor to his campaign, to cover for the company after they were responsible for an explosion that killed 14 people. He was just subpoenaed last month and the prosecutor says he thinks Imperial enlisted Chambliss to help "denigrate the reputation" and "bias the Chatham County jury pool" against whistleblower Graham H. Graham.

Source: http://savannahnow.com/node/601042

* In response to early voting in Georgia, just two weeks ago Chambliss said:

“There has always been a rush to the polls by African-Americans early,” he said at the square in Covington, a quick stop on a bus tour as the campaign entered its final week. He predicted the crowds of early voters would motivate Republicans to turn out. “It has got our side energized, they see what is happening,” he said.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/30/us/politics/30chambliss.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

And so on, and so on. Chambliss is bad for Georgia, bad for the economy, bad for this country, and Jim Martin is really prepared to work with Obama and bring some positive change to this state after the GOP sweep of 2002. Get down to Jim Martin's campaign office at the Biltmore Hotel on West Peachtree - I've been volunteering there lately and they're really nice, gave me a free yard sign and a bumper sticker and some donuts. I live a couple blocks up the street and I'll be glad to come on down and show you around - just give me a call if you're interested. If you can't make it down, donate what you can at http://www.martinforsenate.com/, and make sure you tell everyone to vote on December 2nd. Thanks for reading all of this, and feel free to pass this along to anybody who you think might be interested.

Badass. Here's hoping that helps change some minds.

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/seattlepolitics/archives/154109.asp

"There was a high percentage of minority vote," Chambliss told Alan Colmes, "but we weren't able to get enough of our folks out on election day."

this guy is really fucking incredible

you know i'm hoping that obama beating mccain handily kind of signals the end of the chambliss-style of politics but it would be great if GA could really slam the door here

otoh, we do have to assume that a run-off favors chambliss right?

yes :(

FiveThirtyEight basically says anything is possible.

I've already told my family that, if things don't go our way in Georgia, I'm entering the race.

Be shocked if Chambliss loses, but it's not hopeless. Hope Obama/Dems can throw as many resources behind Martin as possible.

COLMES: You came under fire of course for that ad against Max Cleland and people have talked about that ever since, the one where there was an image of Osama bin Laden. If you had it to do all over again would you still have run that ad?

CHAMBLISS: You know that ad is a myth, it just hangs around. If people had seen the ads that were run against me by my then opponent they would think that was a light-weight ad, but you know politics is a contact sport. It's a game in where you have to define your opponent and we're going to continue to work hard to address the issues that are important to Georgians. We did then and we're going to do it again.

COLMES: So you would have run it, that, knowing what you know now you would have done the same thing and run the same ad?

CHAMBLISS: Listen that ad was very fair and it pointed out defficiencies in the voting record of my opponent.

http://www.senateguru.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=380

Saxby lied on behalf of Imperial Sugar, a donor to his campaign,

I was really hoping Imperial Sugar was a person's name.

I hope Saxby Chambliss gets his ass handed to him.

"Dan Perry's turnout has our side energized." said Chambliss today. "We see what's going on."

haha

Chambliss is one of those people it's acceptable to get all Shakey Mo about, right?

he's not the worst in the Senate, but he's definitely in the bottom quintile

Nelson laugh:

A Minnesota judge threw out a lawsuit Thursday against Al Franken by Republican Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), who claimed his Democratic opponent had defamed him in ads.

Judge Barbara L. Neilson ruled claims by a watchdog group against Coleman referenced in the Franken ads are “substantially accurate, if not literally true.”

thumbs up on the email, and what. i just forwarded the bulk of it to everyone i know in GA.

good lookin out

What we in Georgia lightheartedly refer to as "absentee voting in person" will run Nov. 17-26, according to my local Board of Elections web site. Photo ID is required, of course, thanks to the goons in the state legislature.

I'm not optimistic about Obama voters turning out in sufficient numbers to unseat Chambliss, but if it happens, it will signal a big shift in the politics of the state.

i'm sure the Martin campaign is on it, but I bet Georgians serving overseas would be more than happy to cast their absentee ballot if they get wind of Chambliss' ingratitude (if they didn't know already)

Begich lead grows, further numbers in the next few hours. Only some scattered overseas absentee ballots to count after that.

Minnesota recount automatically triggered, begins tomorrow.

Looks like Begich has it:

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/11/begich-will-be-alaskas-first-us-senate.html

Begich's claimed victory. Nearly 3800 votes ahead with only a further 2500 overall to count. Stevens has apparently not issued a statement. Figures..

There's still hope for Stevens, though - the voting tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your vote in, it gets in line and it's going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of votes... enormous amounts of votes.

I mean, I just the other day got... an election was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday. I got it today.

An election is not a big truck.

that got stuck

on the INTER-NEETTTTT

"NO!"

GA-Sen: The Fight Isn't Over Yet
by Jim Martin
Wed Nov 12, 2008 at 11:03:18 AM PST

For those of you who don't know me, my name is Jim Martin and I'm running for Senate against Saxby Chambliss in Georgia. It's been a tough fought campaign, and despite November 4 coming and going, it isn't over yet. We have a runoff election on December 2, and another opportunity to fight for the middle class and against the failed policies that Saxby has supported in Washington for a decade and a half.

Barack Obama has laid out an ambitious agenda, but with politicians like Saxby working against him at every turn, it's going to be hard to create real change for America.

I'm sure you remember Saxby from his 2002 campaign against Max Cleland in which he infamously aired one of the most shameful ads I've ever seen. Saxby's ad tried to link Max, a heroic war veteran and triple amputee, to Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. John McCain said this on those attacks:

* Jim Martin's diary :: ::
*

I'd never seen anything like that ad. Putting pictures of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden next to the picture of a man who left three limbs on the battlefield -- it's worse than disgraceful. It's reprehensible.

But time has a way of making people forget, and John McCain is coming down to Georgia tomorrow to campaign for my opponent. Maybe John McCain has forgotten Saxby's "worse than disgraceful" behavior, but we sure haven't.

And while Saxby's campaign tactics of smearing a war veteran are indeed "reprehensible," his record on veterans' issues in the Senate may be even worse. Saxby voted to send our troops to war without proper body armor, voted 23 times to cut their healthcare when they return home, and even opposed a tax cut for our veterans while they serve in the line of duty. Saxby voted twice against Jim Webb's dwell time amendment to give our troops more time with their families between tours of duties and opposed funding for traumatic brain injury research, the "signature wound" of the War in Iraq. It's no wonder that so many veterans' organizations have given Saxby poor and failing grades for his record on veterans' issues – Saxby has failed America's veterans.

As a veteran myself, vets issues have always been one of my top priorities. I'm not a war hero, I just served my country like so many Americans. But because of that experience I know the importance of giving back to our veterans and I will work with President-elect Obama to give our men and women in uniform the resources they need and the respect they deserve.

The netroots, and particularly the DailyKos community, have been extremely supportive of my campaign so far, and for that I thank you. But today I ask for your help again. The issues that we're dealing with in this campaign are the most vital of our day, but groups like Karl Rove's Freedom's Watch are already running negative attacks against me and you can be sure the hits will only get more vicious and more personal as December 2 approaches.

If you're interested in getting involved with my campaign, visit MartinForSenate.com to volunteer or visit my Act Blue page.

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat/401612/feingold_proposes_direct_election_of_all_senators?rel=hpbox

Russ Feingold, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, plans to introduce an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to require special elections in the event of a Senate seat vacancy.

"The controversies surrounding some of the recent gubernatorial appointments to vacant Senate seats make it painfully clear that such appointments are an anachronism that must end<" says Feingold. "In 1913, the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution gave the citizens of this country the power to finally elect their senators. They should have the same power in the case of unexpected mid term vacancies, so that the Senate is as responsive as possible to the will of the people."

I am certainly down with this.