Democrats say Georgia’s still in play

Barack Obama’s second-in-command said the race for Georgia remains fierce Thursday, as the Democrat’s campaign here sought to tie the sudden and volatile national economic crisis to their Republican opponent.

Steve Hildebrand, Obama’s deputy national campaign manager, visiting the state for the second time in two weeks, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution “Georgia is very winnable.”

He disputed claims that Obama has abandoned Georgia because he stopped his television advertising campaign here and shuttled some staff to other states. The campaign has 52 paid staff here, 33 offices and 4,800 trained volunteers. McCain has no staff or offices.

“No other state in the country” has been as effective in voter registration than Georgia, he said, where 32,000 new voters were registered over Labor Day alone, and 500,000 since Jan. 1.

“There’s just not a reason to pull out of this state,” Hildebrand said in an interview from the Peachtree Street law office of Obama’s top Georgia supporter, state Sen. David Adelman (D-Atlanta).

A pair of polls released Thursday belied Hildebrand’s enthusiasm. One, conducted by SurveyUSA, showed Republican John McCain with an 16-point lead in Georgia. Another, from Atlanta-based Insider Advantage, showed the race tighter, but still had McCain leading by 8-points.

Those polls, said McCain spokesman Mario Diaz, show that while Obama’s team has “Georgia on their mind, Georgians have shown that they have John McCain on theirs.”

Still, with his buzz cut hair and easy manner, Hildebrand showed off a battleground map on his laptop computer that put Georgia in the purple column with more than 20 other states that will likely decide the election.

“Do I think this is going to be easy? Absolutely not,” he said.

The Insider Advantage poll represents a 10-point dive for McCain. It’s a drop that Insider Advantage president Matt Towery said is traceable to the economic crisis.

“If you ask me, McCain has not handled this economic issue well at all,” said Towery, a former Repulican lawmaker who also worked for former U.S. Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.).

Still, Georgia remains in McCain’s column, albeit not as solidly as a month ago.

“Eight points is more than leaning,” Towery said. “Has there been movement, and is Georgia a movable state? Absolutely. No question.”

Earlier Thursday, Georgia Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond, a Democrat, met with reporters at the Capitol to explain how Obama is better equipped to handle the economic crisis. A day before, Thurmond had announced that Georgia’s unemployment rate hit 6.3 percent, a 15-year high.

“We look at the national economic picture, the unemployment rates, the meltdown on Wall Street,” he said. “And 82 percent of Americans saying we’re headed in the wrong direction. To me, that’s a recipe for change.”

The change they want, he said, is Obama as president.

“We need a president and a White House concerned about everyday working people in this state,” he said.Still, while Thurmond said Obama “can” win Georgia, he was not willing to predict a Democratic victory.

“No, I’m not that bold,” he said. “But he has a chance.”

Republicans lashed out at Thurmond and the Democrats for taking advantage of the situation.

“Commissioner Thurmond did Barack Obama’s dirty work for him and used the pain of Georgians who have lost their jobs in an attempt to score cheap political points,” said Georgia GOP chairwoman Sue Everhart in a statement.

She also scoffed at claims that Obama is best equipped to handle the economy. It’s McCain, she said, who is “offering real and bold solutions to get our economy back on track and grow jobs. This isn’t a time for cheap political rhetoric. It’s a time for the leadership Senator McCain and Governor [Sarah] Palin are going to provide.”

As the machinations of the campaign grinds on, Hildebrand and the Georgia team are looking to next week.

Actual, honest-to-goodness ballots can be cast in most Georgia counties beginning Monday. Voters can vote absentee in person at their local registrar’s office.

“The voting laws in this state are progressive in nature and ripe for the kind of campaign operation we have,” he said. “We have nearly 5,000 active volunteer team members across the state persuading and pushing out voters over the course of 45 days and they [McCain’s campaign] have zero.”

Yes, it’s true, he said, they did stop running ads here. Hildebrand said the campaign expected that McCain would counter Obama’s ads with spots of his own. They then expected McCain to run ads here after the GOP convention.

“And he’s not, so we’re not,” Hildebrand said.

But, he added, the campaign would likely return to the airwaves if McCain runs his first spot here.