Georgia's two major U.S. Senate candidates wasted little time Wednesday preparing the battlefield for their four-month duel that ends with the November general election.

Incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss, 64, painted former state lawmaker Jim Martin as a liberal Democrat backed by back-room liberals in Washington.

"He's a [U.S. Sen.] Chuck Schumer [D-N.Y.] hand-picked guy," Chambliss told reporters at a morning press conference, just hours after voters picked Martin over DeKalb County CEO Vernon Jones as the Democratic Party nominee. "And there's no more liberal member of the U.S. Senate than Chuck Schumer."

Martin, 62, returned fire a few hours later, branding Chambliss a tool of big business, big oil and President Bush.

Martin blasted Chambliss for taking corporate campaign contributions while middle-class Georgians battle soaring energy prices and declining home values.

"Saxby has supported the economic and energy policies that have gotten us into this mess," Martin said at his Midtown campaign headquarters.

He later added: "We have to focus on the needs of the middle class instead of giving the special interests everything they want."

The Chambliss and Martin events were studies in contrast. Chambliss, a first-term senator from Moultrie, took questions from reporters at his Cobb County campaign headquarters for more than 30 minutes on subjects ranging from offshore drilling to Iraq. Martin, on the other hand, read a prepared five-minute statement and refused to take questions from reporters, many of whom left the press conference grumbling about the lack of interaction.

"We just wanted to get our message out there and stay focused," Martin spokesman Ellery Gould said later. "We don't want to get into a lot of back-and-forth right now."

Martin faces an uphill battle against a well-financed incumbent, most political experts agree.

Republicans control both chambers of the state Legislature, the governor's office, both U.S. Senate seats and a majority of the state's congressional seats. A Democrat has not won an open statewide seat in a decade, although a handful of incumbent Democrats have retained their statewide posts, said Charles Bullock, a University of Georgia political scientist.

"Georgia has become a very red state," Bullock said.

But Democrats hope the thousands of new voters inspired by Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama can help turn the tide. Martin now backs Obama but voted for John Edwards in Georgia's February presidential primary, even though Edwards had dropped out of the race.

Chambliss already has purchased and paid for $5.2 million in media advertising, a sign that Republicans are expecting a competitive race. Martin officials say he raised about $450,000 for the Democratic runoff. His campaign spokesman declined to say how much he has available for the general election. Republicans, however, expect national Democrats to pour large sums of cash into Martin's campaign.

"We're prepared for the onslaught that will come from the Democrats," Chambliss said.

He added: "I don't think there's a state in America that either party should take for granted. This will be an election year like none other the United States has seen."

Martin and Chambliss face each other and Libertarian Allen Buckley in November.

Chambliss spent part of his press conference trying to distance himself from Bush, even though he rode Bush's popularity to victory in 2002 and has been a reliable backer of most of the president's policies. Chambliss said he has agreed with Bush on many issues, but parted ways with the president on immigration, Medicare policy and the farm bill.

"When the president is right, I will be with him," Chambliss said. "When he is wrong, I've never been hesitant to look him in the eye and say, 'You are wrong on that.' "

Chambliss said Sen. John McCain, the Republicans' presumptive presidential nominee, will campaign on his behalf in Georgia.

But President Bush will not.

"Unfortunately we were never able to work out a schedule," Chambliss said.