Obama Campaign Supports Senate Candidate In Ga.

Copyright © 2008 National Public Radio®. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

STEVE INSKEEP, host

It's Morning Edition from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep. We still don't know if Democrats will reach the 60 votes that would give them dramatically more power in the U.S. Senate because two races remain uncertain. One is in Georgia where neither candidate got 50 percent of the votes. So under Georgia law, the top two candidates face a runoff in the December. Saxby Chambliss is the Republican incumbent. Jim Martin is the Democratic challenger whose campaign may have been close in part because of strong African-American support. We ask Jim Martin about a second vote without Barack Obama on the ballot.

Mr. JIM MARTIN (Democratic Senatorial Candidate, Georgia): I think it's more of a sense of ownership. I think people in this election feel real ownership of their government. That's something I've not seen in many years. And that's what's really exciting about this election. And of course, President-elect Obama and his campaign helped to create that environment. But it's more than that. It's a sense of ownership and the participation is really encouraging.

INSKEEP: Although, let me ask you about one of those things that you just mentioned. You got to share the ballot with Barack Obama the first time around. This time around in the runoff, you do not. What are you doing to make sure that the enthusiasm of his supporters carries over to get people to the polls a second time?

Mr. MARTIN: Well, we have a very similar message which is that the policy of the Bush administration for the last eight years, with the support of Saxby Chambliss over the last six years he's been in the Senate, hasn't worked. And my message is making sure that the decisions that are made in Washington help middle-class Georgians and help deal with the economic crisis that they're facing. And it is not based on a notion of trickledown economics that provides money for the very wealthy Americans on the assumption that the economy is going to prosper as a result of that.

INSKEEP: Have you been in touch with the president-elect or his staff and said, hey, excuse me, I'm still running here? Can you guys, you know, place a phone call, come down, make a visit, anything?

Mr. MARTIN: Well, I'm honored that President-elect Obama has done a radio commercial for me that is being very well-received in this state, and we have the support of the organization that we worked with him on in the general election. It's still in place. And we have volunteers from across the country who are now coming in to work along with the field operation we already had to get the voters out. So there's a lot of cooperation between our campaign and President Obama's campaign.

INSKEEP: Let me ask another question about that because, of course, one thing the Democrats would love to have is 60 votes in the United States Senate, which would make it much harder for Republicans to sustain a filibuster. Do you think, as an experienced lawmaker on the state level, that that 60 votes could make a big difference in how much the new administration can get through Congress and how much it can't?

Mr. MARTIN: Well, you have to look at the last eight years and to see the effectiveness of a threat of a filibuster in the Senate to prevent meaningful change. And so, yes, it does make sense to have a Congress and a United States Senate that will work with the new president effectively to solve problems. So, I guess another way to say it is that people want the gridlock in Washington to be broken. They want us to start dealing with some enormous problems that this country faces. The people are saying, we need to move forward with solutions to those problems, and we want the Congress and the president to do that.

INSKEEP: I guess we should mention that the reason that you're in a runoff is because neither of you got 50 percent of the vote. There was a third-party candidate who took some of the votes away. And I wonder if this is the time of year when you end up calling and sending a holiday card to every single one of those third-party voters personally.

Mr. MARTIN: We're reaching out to everybody, not just the third party voters. But we're reaching out to Republicans and independents and Democrats to say, Jim Martin will go to Washington to represent the state in the way that people who held this seat in the United States Senate over time did it - Sam Nunn and Max Cleland.

INSKEEP: Has Max Cleland campaign for you?

Mr. MARTIN: Vice President Al Gore was in town, and Max was at that event. He was in my first TV commercial, and he is a good friend of mine. And I'm honored to have his support in my campaign.

INSKEEP: Let's mention he was a Vietnam veteran. He lost three limbs there. And by some people's accounts, patriotism was questioned in the race in 2002 against Senator Saxby Chambliss. Have you in any sense said that this one's for Max Cleland?

Mr. MARTIN: Well there's a lot - there are a lot people who remember that race. And certainly the same kinds of negative attacks that they used against Max are being used against me. But the voters aren't buying them. And most people think that those attacks were despicable.

INSKEEP: Jim Martin, thanks very much.

MR. MARTIN: Thank you, Steve.

INSKEEP: Jim Martin is the Democratic candidate in Georgia's runoff Senate election set for December 2. And we have also given several invitations to Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss to speak on this program.

Copyright © 2008 National Public Radio®. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to National Public Radio. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.