Senator Chambliss has been called as the winner of the runoff election in Georgia. This will give the Republicans at least 41 votes, on paper, in the Senate.
While the vote totals appear to be substantially lower than the general election, they still managed to get about 55% of the folks to return for a second time. 55% is a pretty good overall return rate for a runoff. However, the two candidates fared very differently compared to the average.
I’m working off of numbers from the Secretary of State as of about 10 PM. At that time, Chambliss had about 64% of the general election total while Martin only received about 50% of his general election total. 95% of the precincts had reported in those numbers. If this difference holds, and I suspect it will generally based on the precincts left to report, I’ve got the following questions questions:
- 93% of blacks voted for Martin when Obama was on the ballot. They accounted for 56% of Martin’s vote total. Did they come out and support an older white man when there wasn’t a black candidate on the ballot?
- With the Democrats within reach of the magic 60 number in the Senate, how many folks switched from Martin to Chambliss?
- Chambliss and Martin split the 29 and under group in the general election. It will be interesting to see whether that group was able to show up a second time this year.
- Sarah Palin made several campaign appearances for Chambliss. By all accounts the events were very well attended. How much, or was she a factor in generating turn out for Chambliss?
- Do you remember how the MSM was carrying on about how the special elections for Mississippi and Illinois told us that conservatism was dead rather than the fact that Republicans know how to run crappy candidates. Will the MSM be running stories about how Obama has lost his coat tails?
This and more I’d like to see. I haven’t found any exit polls yet. When I do, you’ll be the first to know!
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