Barack Obama has no business winning in Georgia this year. Neither does U.S. Senate candidate Jim Martin. Yet both Democrats are within striking range in a state President Bush carried by 17 points in 2004, and where in the last six years Republicans replaced Democrats in both Senate seats, and won the governor’s office for the first time since Reconstruction. John McCain leads Barack Obama by just two points and Jim Martin trails incumbent Senator Saxby Chambliss by just 4 points, 44 – 48 percent.
The latest Democracy Corps survey conducted among 600 likely voters in Georgia October 16-19, 2008, shows that the Republican brand is tarnished in this state and a national wave threatens to carry it to Democratic shores. Obama and Martin still trail and must make gains to win here, but the fact that Georgia is even close speaks to the powerful political currents across the country.
