<p>Rep. Jim Marshall barely won re-election, while Rep. John Barrow claimed victory Wednesday in the state's two tight U.S. House races, though some ballots remained uncounted and their Republican rivals refused to concede a day after the polls closed.</p><p>The Associated Press called Marshall the winner in his race with former congressman Mac Collins, based on various factors, including voter turnout and previous voting patterns in the two remaining precincts where votes were still being counted Wednesday.</p><p>With 99 percent of the precincts reporting, Marshall led by only 1,682 votes in his middle Georgia's 8th District, but one of the outstanding precincts was in Bibb County, which includes Marshall's hometown of Macon, where he was mayor, and has strongly favored the Democrat.</p><p>Meanwhile, in east Georgia's 12th District, Barrow said he had enough of a margin to withstand the tally of outstanding ballots and possible recounts.</p><p>"I think you can stick a fork in this election. It is done," a grinning Barrow told reporters at mid-day news conference in downtown Savannah.</p><p>Marshall narrowly won his third term in a Republican-friendly district where the GOP had invested heavily in hopes of stealing away a seat to counter losses elsewhere.</p><p>A Vietnam War veteran who boasted of his National Rifle Association membership in television ads, Marshall's close win kept in Democratic hands a rural district that gave President Bush 61 percent of the vote in 2004.</p><p>Marshall won a far more comfortable victory in 2004, taking 63 percent. But this time he struggled in a new district redrawn by the GOP-led state legislature in 2005 and that on paper is solidly Republican. Marshall also overcame several million dollars in attack ads characterizing him as a tax-happy liberal who's lenient on illegal immigrants.</p><p>Bush visited the district twice in October to rally GOP voters, while national groups such as the Republican National Congressional Committee funneled cash into the race to create a nearly constant television and radio ad campaign that dominated water-cooler talk about the race.</p><p>But Tuesday's results showed that Marshall continued winning crossover votes from Republicans, and that many voters didn't believe allegations that Marshall was a liberal.</p><p>"I've been around long enough to know that you can play on words," said Gaye Hayles-Newton, a Democrat, after she cast a ballot at Mabel White Memorial Baptist Church in north Macon. "I think his reputation speaks for itself."</p><p>Collins, an experienced candidate who served six terms in the House before a failed 2004 Senate bid, came much closer to knocking off Marshall than many local and national political experts had expected. But throughout the campaign, he struggled to distinguish himself from Marshall's conservative record on issues such as the war in Iraq, abortion, same-sex marriage and taxes.</p><p>As of Wednesday afternoon, he had not yet conceded the race, although before leaving his election-night party late Tuesday he acknowledged the long odds he faced.</p><p>"The atmosphere all across the country is tough for Republicans and it's no different in Georgia, especially when challenging an incumbent with a conservative agenda and a conservative voting record," he said.</p>
