Ga. Senate race may end up in spotlight

Well-polished political celebs and teams of scraggly ground troops from both major parties could invade Georgia over the next few weeks if the U.S. Senate race between Republican Saxby Chambliss and Democrat Jim Martin ends up in a full-blown runoff.

Thousands of votes —- including many paper ballots from Fulton County —- were still being counted late Wednesday, and neither Chambliss nor Martin had broken the magical 50 percent mark required by state law to declare a winner.

The sleep-deprived candidates were still in campaign overdrive the day after Tuesday’s cliff-hanger election, even though the state cannot officially call a Dec. 2 runoff before next week when votes are certified.

Chambliss was hoping that a last-minute surge of still-to-be-counted votes would put him at 50 percent plus one. Martin was confident the outstanding votes wouldn’t significantly change the outcome of Tuesday’s election.

He declared the runoff under way.

On Wednesday, Martin said he has already contacted President-elect Barack Obama about campaigning for him in Georgia. And Chambliss would likely call on the likes of U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and hunting buddy and oil-tycoon-turned-green-energy promoter T. Boone Pickens.

“Georgia is about to become ground zero for national politics over the next 30 days,” said former state GOP leader Rusty Paul.

A Senate runoff in Georgia would be pivotal because Democrats are trying to reach a 60-vote, filibuster-proof majority in the upper chamber to quickly advance their agenda. They had 56 seats as of Tuesday night, and four more —- including Georgia’s —- still had not been resolved.

Martin and his campaign operatives confirmed Wednesday they have talked to Obama’s campaign about getting involved in the Atlanta attorney’s ongoing campaign.

“We have reached out and asked for their support,” said Martin spokesman Ellery Gould. “It’s still early, and I think it’s fair to say we’re not his [Obama’s] No. 1 priority at this point.”

Martin also plans to use Obama ground troops to organize and get out the vote for the four-weeks-later runoff.

“There may well be some folks coming in just because they are interested in helping,” Gould said. “But we don’t plan to import a lot of people. There’s a lot of homegrown talent here with the Obama campaign who know the lay of the land.”

Chambliss spokeswoman Michelle Grasso said that while Chambliss has not conceded that there will be a runoff: “You can’t lose the week while you wait. We are still in campaign mode until the last vote is counted.”

Grasso said McCain, Palin and Pickens could be called on to campaign for Chambliss in some capacity if the race goes into overtime.

“These are conservatives, and they want to make sure the nation’s conservative voice is represented in the U.S. Senate,” Grasso said.

She said the GOP campaign will also ramp up its far-flung ground troops throughout the state in an effort to boost turnout.

“The profile of the race went up in the last few weeks,” Grasso said. “We’ll be getting some extra hands, and we will need them.”

Both camps were reticent to discuss how much campaign money they have left after their televised attack-ad blitzes during the general election. Both said they will need mountains of cash for a high-profile runoff.

“We have enough money to get rolling, and we’ll raise more,” Gould said. How much do they need to raise? “Millions,” Gould said.

Grasso said she did not know how much a runoff might cost, but said new contributions for their campaign began arriving today after word got out that a runoff might be in the offing.

“We expect the national Democrats to pump a lot of money into Martin’s campaign, and we have to be prepared to combat that,” she said.

Staff writers James Salzer and Bill Torpy contributed to this article.