Black Vote Puts Heat on Georgia Republican

With Barack Obama’s candidacy driving record early-voter turnout in Georgia among African-Americans, Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss is in an unexpected dogfight with Democrat Jim Martin, the New York Times reports. Though the Obama campaign stopped short of a full-court press for Georgia, it has spent months registering tens of thousands of new voters, many of them African-American.

Martin, like Obama, has been able to use the financial crisis to hurt his Republican rival: His attack ads link “Saxby economics” to the excesses in the mortgage-securities market. The race has taken on increased national significance with Democrats hoping long-shot candidacies like Martin’s bring them a 60-vote, filibuster-proof majority. (More Jim Martin stories.)