GOP Ga. senator in 'fight of his life'

WARNER ROBINS, Ga. (AP) This central-Georgia military town outside Robins Air Force Base should be a cakewalk on Election Day for Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss. But ask people here if they support him and one finds surprising ambivalence, even hostility.

``I think everybody is just so totally dissatisfied with what's going on in Washington now that we feel like you probably can't get much worse, so you might as well try somebody new,'' said Jean Hammock, a longtime Republican who listens daily to conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh.

Once considered a safe bet for re-election to a second term, Chambliss suddenly appears vulnerable amid a wave of anti-incumbent frustration and economic turmoil.

His newly troubled candidacy is giving Democrats visions of approaching a 60-vote, filibuster-proof majority in next month's election, instead of just the four or five seats they had expected to take from Republicans. Democrats control the Senate 51-49.

Chambliss' ``yes'' vote for the $700 billion financial package earlier this month is the latest in a series of positions that haven't sat well with the conservatives who make up his base. He also faces a potential surge of newly registered Democratic voters excited about Barack Obama's presidential campaign, and a general anti-Republican sentiment after eight years of the Bush administration.

The mood has changed so much in recent weeks that Georgia Republican Party Chairwoman Sue Everhart says Chambliss is in ``the fight of his life.''

``I think he will win,'' Everhart said prior to Georgia's GOP Victory Dinner in Atlanta last Tuesday. ``But not by the large margin we expected early on.''

Without question, Georgia remains a GOP stronghold, and Chambliss is still favored over Democrat Jim Martin. The state supported President Bush with 58 percent of the vote four years ago. Martin would need impressive turnout and perhaps a strong assist from Libertarian candidate Allen Buckley to win.

But recent polls show Chambliss with a modest lead, but the race tightening. And Democrats relish the possibility of revenge against the man who, in a 2002 campaign ad, criticized Democratic Sen. Max Cleland's commitment to national security even though Cleland lost three limbs in the Vietnam War. Chambliss defeated Cleland with 53 percent of the vote.

Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, head of the Democrats' Senate campaign committee, said Martin and Chambliss are virtually tied, even in polls that Schumer believes don't fully capture Obama's effect on African-American and young voters.

``We're doing extremely well in places we didn't expect to do well,'' said Schumer. ``Georgia was a surprise to us.''

The Democratic committee, however, still doesn't list the state as a battleground, and so far hasn't put much money into the race. Schumer declined to say whether it will run ads in Georgia as it has in other competitive races.

Georgia is ``a state we're taking a very close look at,'' he said.

Martin has been running television ads throughout the state but trails Chambliss in fundraising. The Democrat has stepped up his attacks in recent days, criticizing Chambliss for his bailout vote and loyalty to Bush.

Chambliss said he always predicted the race would be tight. He knew he had not endeared himself to conservatives by supporting a compromise immigration package that drew him boos at a state GOP function last year and, more recently, championing a bipartisan energy measure criticized by Limbaugh and other conservative commentators.

He also was well aware of the political risks of supporting the bailout package. But he said Congress had little choice but to respond and try to contain economic losses. He's hoping sharp market declines in recent days will strengthen his case that action was urgently needed.

The senator downplayed suggestions that the bailout vote would make or break him.

``I've cast hundreds and hundreds of votes over the last 14 years,'' Chambliss, a former House member, told reporters before the GOP Victory dinner in Atlanta. ``To say any one is going to cost me the election, that's just not the case.''

At least one self-described lifelong Republican thinks otherwise. Ron Davis of Dallas, Ga., said he was so infuriated by Chambliss' bailout vote that he set up the Web site www.FireSaxby.com

``I never really followed politics closely. This was a wake-up call to me,'' the 31-year-old information technology administrator said.

Davis said he'll vote for Buckley in November, adding that GOP friends in his neighborhood are also disillusioned with Chambliss.

``I think he should be worried,'' Davis said.

On the Net:
Saxby Chambliss: www.saxby.com
Jim Martin: www.martinforsenate.com
Allen Buckley: www.buckleyforsenate.com