Well, it’s obvious by now that Republican Saxby Chambliss did not win the required 50%+1 votes he needed to avoid a runoff (being off by 0.1% has got to suck).
Now I’ve heard a lot of argument about how Chambliss will win the runoff easily, given how turnout would be lower, and how the Libertarian vote would just go back to the GOP with two candidates on the ballot. Before everyone falls into despair or just plainly give up on Jim Martin, let me offer three subtle suggestions on how to pull off the biggest political upset for years to come.
1.)”Excuse me, um, but the election’s not over yet…sorry”
First thing I think is obvious…people have to know about the runoff before anything else! Advertise! Put out newspaper ads! Get Obama’s ground operation in all out mode right this minute! Because the more time you waste, the less people (especially Democrats) will be motivated and mobilized to go vote again in a month.
“And now may I introduce my special guest…President Elect Barack Obama!!”
Let’s face it: Obama came close to winning Georgia than anyone in 12 years. If you check the link above, you can see he won more votes than Martin. Georgia unlike Mississippi could use some Obama coattails during a runoff campaign to put Martin over the top. I envision a massive rally in Augustus or Atlanta with at least 10000 Martin supporters awaiting President-elect Obama to give them reason to vote Jim Martin into office.
“Let me tell you something, Bob Barr supporter. Jim Martin is wayyy more conservative than Saxby Chambliss.”
Let me clarify my above statement before angry Martin supporters respond to this. Most Libertarian voters who voted for Buckley will return to Chambliss, but there’s an argument to be made for them to support Martin instead. Think about it: Libertarians are for small government with no intervention of any kind from them. Saxby Chambliss for the past 8 years (as a Congressman and Senator) supported a Republican administration that spent the country into the ground. He supported the bailout, which I doubt many Libertarians endorsed. Jim Martin may be a Democrat, but I doubt that in his career he supported measures to spend the state into the ground. Libertarians need to be reminded of that.
Well, those are some ideas on what the Martin camp needs to think about if they’re serious about winning in a runoff. But of course, they are my own and not endorsed by anybody.
Comments welcome. Thank you.
I like that last one. 😀
But yeah, how sure are we that this is indeed headed to a runoff?
talk about effectiveness, get the black vote out, hit hard on agriculture and small town issues, be charismatic, and angry, be a traditional rural populist, when over those Republican areas, hold big areas like Bibb, Chatham, Fulton, DeKlab and Gwinnett, (the third of the Atlanta counties), by big margins.