Posted on 05/25/2007 1:26:11 PM PDT by Politicalmom
A new poll in Georgia shows Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R) could be vulnerable to a strong Democratic challenger and that his current challenger is closer than many expected him to be.
The poll, conducted by independent Atlanta-based Insider Advantage and released Friday, shows Chambliss edging former Gov. Roy Barnes (D) 42-40. Barnes has not shown interest in the race, but he was used as a baseline sample for a well-known statewide Democrat.
In a second set of results, Chambliss is beating DeKalb County CEO Vernon Jones 48-31. That is significantly closer than the 57-29 result shown by a Strategic Vision poll from early April. Jones has established an exploratory committee for the race and will make an official announcement this summer.
The poll was conducted Tuesday and Wednesday among 500 registered voters in the state. “It doesn’t mean that Chambliss is in serious trouble,” Insider Advantage CEO Matt Towery said. “Although I think it does show that he is a candidate who will have to work to reacquaint himself with the public here. He has very weak name ID.”
The Jones camp hailed the results as proof that he can be competitive with Chambliss. The state has not been high on the Democrats’ target list, as the national party has focused more on states like Texas and Kentucky.
“I have not officially announced at this point and already you’re seeing that the race is closing in,” Jones told The Hill. “Clearly, a lot of it has to do with Saxby not being in touch with Georgians, and the prime example is the immigration issue.”
The poll did not measure anything concerning immigration. Chambliss was recently booed by members of his party while defending the Senate’s immigration bill, which includes a path to citizenship and a guest-worker program.
Jones, who is running as a conservative Democrat, criticized him for his immigration stance this week. Jones favors an enforcement-first approach.
Towery pointed out that Chambliss did not lose many Republican voters but suggested that the 17 percent of independent voters that favored Jones and the 25 percent that favored Barnes might reflect discontent with what is happening in Washington.
Barnes and Jones both garnered 67.9 percent of the black vote, while Jones, who is black, got about 10 percent less of the white vote.
Chambliss’s office did not return a call requesting comment Friday afternoon.
Some Democrats in the state have been recruiting Rep. Jim Marshall (D-Ga.) to run against Chambliss, but Marshall has not shown much interest in the race. The poll did not include a comparison of how Marshall would fare against Chambliss.
AMNESTY not to popular in Georgia, what to do, what to do.
A strong Republican primary challenger would stand a chance against Chambliss ... and I think you’re right on the money who it should be.
A Democrat will not beat Chambliss, and anyone who thinks one would is deluding himself.
We may be mad, we may not vote for him, but he’ll win re-election with or without us. This seat goes to the Republican running for it, and Jim Marshall knows that.
I think polls are going to show that ANY Republican Senator who backs the Immigration Bill is going to be vulnerable!
I'll do everything I can to see that he and Isakson go down in flames to candidates like Herman Cain.
Boy the GOP is really full of “geniuses” who recognize the “popularity” of amnesty with the average voter.
Isn’t Barnes behind Zell Miller in being the only widly popular Dems in the state?
Zell Miller is a hero who would have known what to do about this immigration bill. Too bad HE didn’t stay in the Senate.
Let him get his votes from the illegal aliens he will give amnesty to - oh wait - they’re going to vote Democrat, aren’t they.
I wonder if his concession speech will be in Spanish.
We WILL NOT replace him with Cynthia McKinney...
...OR Vernon Jones...
...OR especially former "King" Roy Barnes...
I like Saxby, and I do think he is a darn good Senator for us in Georgia. That being said, if he supports the immigration bill as it stands, he can kiss my money and my help and support goodbye. I have drawn my line in the sand on this one issue, and I ain’t bendin’ 1 iota on it, and as much as I admire Sen. Chambliss, if he votes for it I will be content to call him FORMER Senator Chambliss just as I love calling the idiot from Plains FORMER President Dumbshi*.
Chambliss got his arse booed at a GOP convention for his secret, behind the scenes immigration work
Chambliss got his arse booed at a GOP convention for his secret, behind the scenes immigration work
A Democrat will not beat Chambliss, and anyone who thinks one would is deluding himself.
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Especially Roy Barnes. Barnes could not even beat our current piece of %$#@ Sonny Purdue.
Barnes is absolutely despised. He orchestrated the Republican victories in 2002 as much as anyone.
Just be careful and do the work, because that’s what they said about George Allen last year.
I'm the reason the Democrats are hopeful. Chambliss won't have me working for him or voting for him. If we could get someone in the primary to run against him, I'll work like a dog to see him be a one-term senator.
I won't work for a Democrat, but he's lost me as a supporter.
The amnesty deal is one thing. Lying about it is another. But not answering the phone I call but answering the "spanish language" phone ... that's too, too much.
When he was gov., he alienated every ordinarily Dem group you can think of -- teachers, government workers, unions, law enforcement, you name it.
He also did too much revenge payback while in office to get widespread support. Our suburban Cobb County district voted against him in the first governor's race (it's a largely Repub area, Isakson's old seat) and in revenge he broke up this area and put each precinct with a different west side Atlanta/Fulton County inner city neighborhood.
Of course, that didn't exactly work out the way he planned, because everybody was so mad we organized and dumped Billy McKinney (yes, Cynthia's dad) out of office.
Barnes pandered to the black voters at the expense of all the others. For some reason, he was willing to alienate anyone and every one, but not the blacks. That was the one group he didn't sell out.
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