Buckley wants commitment from Senate candidates

Libertarian Allen Buckley lost Georgia’s U.S. Senate race in a big way. But he’s refusing to fade away as he confirmed Thursday.

Both incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss and Democrat Jim Martin would like to have the 3.4 percent of the vote Buckley got on Tuesday if the high-profile race goes into a Dec. 2 runoff.

Votes are still being counted, but as of noon Thursday, neither Chambliss nor Martin had broken the 50-percent mark necessary for an outright win. Failing that, the two will meet in a costly, high-profile runoff.

Buckley said Thursday that by early next week he will have a campaign “commitment” form he will ask the two top vote-getters to sign before getting his endorsement. No signature, no endorsement, said the Smyrna lawyer and CPA.

“It’s going to be mainly financial commitments that are reasonable,” Buckley told The Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Buckley ran an underfunded campaign based on fiscal responsibility. He said that neither Chambliss nor Martin support the massive federal spending cuts that Buckley said are necessary to save the nation from eventual “financial doom.” Buckley contends that the growing federal debt will eventually take down the country’s financial under pinning.

Buckley said Martin called him early Wednesday morning asking for his endorsement, but Buckley said he did not commit.

The Libertarian said he will formally ask Chambliss and Martin to sign his commitment, which he said will be “three or four pages” and list five to 10 commitments. Among them: A promise to cut federal spending, a balanced federal budget, no pork spending and a realistic solution to Social Security.

“If they don’t sign it, they won’t get my endorsement,” he said.

Statewide, Buckley received 126,003 votes, or 3.4 percent. His top counties were Lumpkin (6.4 percent), White, Haralson, Gilmer, Dawson, Hall, Barrow, Pickens and Cherokee (5.2 percent). As one knowledgeable Republican pointed out, Buckley’s 4,700 votes from Cherokee, assuming they were all taken from GOP incumbent Saxby Chambliss, guaranteed a runoff.

But Cobb County provided more votes (13,022) for Buckley than any other, followed by Gwinnett (11,434) and Fulton (10,755). That means Chambliss has some ground to make up not just in exurbia, but suburbia as well.

Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr received 28,414 votes, or .7 percent.