That Last Georgia Senate Runoff

A new Democratic president elected at a time of economic uncertainty, a Georgia senator thrown into a runoff because while he won the most votes, he failed to reach 50 percent of the vote in the first go-around.

2008 yes, but also 1992. And maybe that's one of the reasons President-elect Barack Obama is not campaigning for Democrat Jim Martin in the Peach State for tomorrow's runoff.

Back in 1992, Bill Clinton, then the governor of Arkansas, was elected president, carrying Georgia in the process (the last Democrat to do so, by the way). Georgia was a completely different state back then. Its two senators were Democrats, its governor was a Democrat, and nine of the state's 10 members of the House (save one Newt Gingrich) were Democrats. In the Senate race that year, first-term incumbent Wyche Fowler led Republican challenger Paul Coverdell by 35,000 votes, but he failed to win an outright majority; he captured 49.2 percent of the vote against Coverdell and a Libertarian candidate.

Clinton decided to campaign for Fowler in the runoff, which took place three weeks later. But the Democratic base that came out on Nov. 3 was less energized for the runoff. Republicans, on the other hand, went all out for Coverdell, who as it was had to struggle to win his party's nomination against Bob Barr, at the time a former U.S. attorney and two years away from winning a seat in Congress. In the runoff, Coverdell unseated Fowler by just over 16,000 votes (out of 1.2 million cast), foreshadowing a Republican uprising that was to come two years later.

There is no shortage of Democrats campaigning on behalf of Jim Martin, notably Mr. Clinton himself, Al Gore, Donna Brazile and others. Just no Barack Obama. And, perhaps, with other things on his mind he is still assembling his Cabinet, and the Dow is down more than 670 points today, not to mention the fact that John McCain, after all, carried the state risking political capital less than a month after his election may not be the way to go.