Saxby Chambliss Runoff

[88Mariner]

Re: Saxby Chambliss Runoff

I dunno.. my person theory is:

On Nov 4 this year, the country was ready. People had been waiting years for this, so the turnout by the left/Dems/sensible people (whatever you want to call them) was unreal, and we got shit done.

Now, afterwards, a good amount of people went back to life as normal.. mission accomplished.

What's a good ol' southern redneck Republican to do? They crawled out of every cave and swamp they could.. just like the rest of the country did on Nov 4.. to fight back however they could.


Timing.. all timing.

ugh ok? let's see, Chamblis barely lost the win by like. 05%. He was steadily ahead from the get go.
Second, factoring that people only gave a shiat about Obama and nothing else (Prop 8 i'm looking at you!), it is no suprise that fewer people came out for the Dems.
Third, moving from a 3-point margin of victory on November 4 to a 15-point margin of victory a month later is a significant accomplishment! Chambils brought the bigs guns out and it worked.

You may think southerners live in caves and swamps, but thier votes still count.

[toasty]

Re: Saxby Chambliss Runoff

ugh ok? let's see, Chamblis barely lost the win by like. 05%. He was steadily ahead from the get go.
Second, factoring that people only gave a shiat about Obama and nothing else (Prop 8 i'm looking at you!), it is no suprise that fewer people came out for the Dems.
Third, moving from a 3-point margin of victory on November 4 to a 15-point margin of victory a month later is a significant accomplishment! Chambils brought the bigs guns out and it worked.

You may think southerners live in caves and swamps, but thier votes still count.

Obama driving the turnout in November certainly played a large part in explaining the increase in the margin. The other thing to keep in mind is that the guy that stole a few percentage points from Chamblis the first time around and effectively forced the runoff was a Libertarian candidate, and it would appear that Chamblis picked up that 3%, which isn't horribly surprising.

Also, now that we know the results in the other Senate races around the country, we know that this race could well mean the difference between a filibuster-proof majority or not, depending upon what happens with the recount in MN. I could see moderates who would otherwise vote against Chamblis for any of a host of reasons not being willing to give the democrats the keys to the kingdom, and Chamblis benefited from that.

Finally, I gotta hand it to republicans -- they are much better at getting out the vote on these special elections than democrats...