Democrat Jim Martin continues to break out the big bats as he seeks to unseat Republican U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss in the December 2nd run-off election.

Monday morning, prominent Democratic strategist Donna Brazille penned an email to supporters of Jim Martin letting them know that she's coming to Georgia.

"I'm on my way to Georgia, and I wanted to send you a quick message," the email reads.  "When I heard Jim Martin was in a runoff, I cleared my calendar because I knew I needed to do whatever I could to ensure a big win for Jim in the 15 short days we have until the election."

Brazille asked supporters of the Georgia Democratic U.S. Senate candidate to "dig deep for Jim Martin and make an immediate contribution of $35, $75, or $150 today."

"I wouldn't be on my way to Georgia to help Jim if I didn't know that we can win this race, Brazille wrote.  "Georgians are ready for change, and they're ready for a U.S. Senator who will work with President-elect Obama - not someone who is dead-set on blocking his ambitious agenda."

Brazille is a member of the Democratic National Committee and made history in 2000 as the first African-American to manage a major presidential campaign when she served as Al Gore's campaign manager.  Brazille is frequently seen on CNN and the ABC News Sunday morning public affairs program "This Week with George Stephanopoulos."

While I can't speak for some of the other activists on this site, I know that back in 2005 I spent a considerable amount of time lobbying Georgia's Democratic National Committee members to cast their votes for Howard Dean to be the next chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

I believe I was the first member of Georgia's state Democratic committee to endorse Howard Dean for DNC Chair writing in my January, 2005 endorsement that Dean would "build and strengthen the Democratic Party at all levels; help recruit Democratic candidates for public office at all levels; and provide them with the assistance and support that they need to effectively campaign for the office that they are seeking."  [Source:  Democracy for New Hampshire, "Georgian for Dean", January 27, 2005]

I don't think there can be any doubt that Howard Dean as DNC Chair has done everything I and many other Democratic Party activists hoped he would do to make our Party a national party again.

As DNC Chair, Howard Dean deserves as much credit for Barack Obama's victory last week as the Obama for America campaign team itself.  For as was rightly written in The Hill newspaper, "Dean paid for national-party staff in all 50 states and developed a single voter database for every Democratic candidate to use in 47 states.

Democratic Party officials are convinced this enabled Obama to build a strong grassroots operation in Republican strongholds, such as Idaho, Nebraska and North Dakota, that pushed him to victory over Clinton in the primary."  [Source:  The Hill, "Last laugh replaces Dean's scream", November 3, 2008]

Well, the not-so-good news is that after all this hard work, Howard Dean is stepping down as Chairman of the Democratic National Committee clearing the way for President Obama to name a leader of the DNC.

Former Vermont governor Howard Dean, who rose to national prominence during a failed bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004, will not seek a second term as chairman of the Democratic National Committee, clearing the way for a loyalist of President-elect Barack Obama to be named to the soon to be vacant post.

Source: The Fix (Washington Post), "Dean to Step Down as DNC Chair", November 10, 2008

Add to that the rumors that all of the paid staff sent to the state Democratic Parties are being let go [Source:  Fire Dog Lake, "50 State Strategy Being Killed by Letting the Organizers Go", November 7, 2008], and it begins to look more and more like the Democratic Party is going back to its pre-Dean days.

I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that I am grateful for Howard Dean's leadership, wish he would reconsider his decision to step down, and strongly urge him to seek another term as DNC Chair.

The Georgia online political newsletter, Capitol Impact, is reporting today that John McCain and possibly Sarah Palin are coming to Georgia on behalf of their good friend Saxby Shameless who was forced into a run-off by Democrat Jim Martin.

Chambliss said Friday the GOP presidential nominee and possibly Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will campaign for him in the runoff election with Democrat Jim Martin; Martin has asked president-elect Barack Obama to make a campaign appearance as well but has received no confirmation yet; runoff election will be held Dec. 2 because Chambliss did not get 50 percent plus one vote in the general election

Source:  Capitol Impact, McCain is coming to Georgia, November 7, 2008

21st Century Democrats, a national organization with a long term mission to train progressives and build the network of populist Democrats, announced Wednesday that they would be coordinating volunteers to assist Jim Martin in his December 2nd run-off election against Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss.

The Democratic group's involvement with Georgia's U.S. Senate race is part of a partnership with the group No Voter Left Behind.net to make sure that every vote is counted in the 12 close federal and state-level election races across the nation that remain undecided.

"Our whole purpose for existing is to make sure that Republicans do not steal elections in 2008 the way that they did in 2000 and 2004. Our mission is to make sure that every vote is counted," Jennifer Petty, spokesperson for No Voter Left Behind.net, said.  "We still have a chance to reach our goal of 60 Democrats in the Senate, with four races still undecided. And Democrats are in a position to further solidify their control of the U.S. House with four additional seats."

With 96% of precincts reporting, incumbent Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss is under the threshold of 50% plus one needed to avoid a December 2nd run-off with Democrat Jim Martin.

Saxby Chambliss (R) - 1,777,769 (49.8%)
Jim Martin (D) - 1,671,932 (46.8%)
Allen Buckley (L) - 121,862 (3.4%)
Totals - 3,571,563

Source:  Georgia Secretary of State, "Unofficial And Incomplete Results of the Tuesday, November 04, 2008 General Election", November 5, 2008

Many of the local papers and t.v. stations are cautiously withholding any predictions on the Georgia U.S. Senate race until all votes are counted, and more than likely, recounted [Sources:  Atlanta Journal Constitution, "No decision, no majority in Senate race", November 4, 2008; WXIA-TV (Atlanta), "Chambliss Leads Martin, Runoff May Loom", November 5, 2008].

It appears as if Jim Martin may have forced Saxby Chambliss into overtime, but it may be days before we know for sure.

Insider Advantage Georgia has released its final poll of the 2008 General Election season (unless there's a run-off in 4 weeks), and the numbers say that Georgia is teetering on the brink of turning blue for Obama.  

In the Senate race between Jim Martin and Saxby Chambliss, it looks like we're headed towards overtime.

Here are the numbers:

John McCain (R) - 48%
Barack Obama (D) - 47%
Bob Barr - (L) 2%
Other - 1%
Undecided - 2%

Saxby Chambliss (R) - 48%
Jim Martin (D) - 43%
Allen Buckley (L) - 2%
Undecided - 7%

[Source:  Insider Advantage Georgia, "A Nip-And-Tuck Presidential Fight For Georgia ... Senate Race Likely Headed To Runoff", November 3, 2008]

With Georgia's 45-day early voting period now at a close, more than 2 million ballots were cast representing 36% of the Peach State's 5.5 million registered voters.

Using the Daily Kos/Research 2000 poll released October 31st, we can project where both candidates stand with less than a day left until Election Day.

In the poll, McCain was clinging to a 3-point lead over Obama, 47% to 44% with 3% going to other candidates and 6% undecided.  The demographic breakdown showed the following:

	McCain	Obama	Other	Undecided
White	69%	22%	5%	4%
Black	4%	91%	-	5%
Hispanic	8%	66%	-	26%
Other	8%	68%	-	24%

After applying the percentage of the candidate's support in each demographic group to the number of early votes cast, we see that Barack Obama gets 48.2%; John McCain gets 43.4%; Bob Barr gets 3% leaving 5.3% undecided.

In other words, if the ballots from early voting were counted today, Barack Obama would hold a lead of about 97,000 votes with 107,288 additional votes undecided.  

Below is the breakdown of votes each candidate might have received during Georgia's early voting period using the Daily Kos/Research 2000 poll:

Starbucks has announced a promotion aimed at doing I'm not sure what other than giving away free cups of coffee on Election Day.

According to the event posting on Starbucks' Facebook page, all you have to do is come into your local Starbucks on Nov. 4th, tell them you voted, and they'll give you a tall cup of brewed coffee for free.

The free coffee promotion runs between  8AM and 10PM.