Georgia race key in Senate power struggle

By Matthew Bigg

ATLANTA (Reuters) - A contest for a U.S. Senate seat from Georgia has become a last stand for the Republican Party to block Democrats from gaining a majority big enough to push their legislation through the chamber almost at will.

Both parties have brought their big guns to this usually reliably-Republican southern state ahead of the December 2 run-off election.

Former President Bill Clinton was in Atlanta on Tuesday stumping for the Democratic challenger while failed Republican presidential candidate John McCain and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who tried for the Republican presidential nomination, have campaigned for the incumbent.

"The hopes of America are riding with Georgia," Clinton told a crowd of about 2,000 at a chilly outdoor rally.

If Democrats can pick up the Georgia seat as well as a contested seat from Minnesota, they will control the 60 votes in the 100-member Senate needed to overcome the minority's procedural hurdles. While setting that milestone for the first time in 30 years, it would not guarantee success of Democrats' bills as senators may cross party lines.

The Senate race in Georgia went to a run-off because incumbent Republican Saxby Chambliss narrowly failed to reach the required 50 percent threshold over Democrat Jim Martin.

In Minnesota, results of the contest between Republican incumbent Norm Coleman and Democratic challenger Al Franken are headed to a recount next month.

Turnout in early voting in Georgia is sharply lower than for the November 4 contest in which Democrat Barack Obama was elected the country's first black president but failed to carry Georgia.

"The person who wins this (run-off) election will be the one whose supporters want it the most .... You just have to decide how much you want it," Clinton told the rally at Clark Atlanta University, which has a history of serving African American students.

Jennifer Duffy, who tracks Senate races for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, said the Georgia contest appears close with the Republican incumbent clinging to a small lead.

"I put a thumb on the scale for Chambliss .... A lot favors Chambliss ... but Democrats may have a shot," Duffy said, adding that the race could turn, in part, on whether President-elect Obama goes to Georgia to campaign.

"If he goes down there, it's a sign it's very, very close and potentially winnable for them (Democrats)," Duffy said.

The president-elect would not put his political reputation on the line to campaign in Georgia unless Martin's chances looked good, said political science professor Merle Black, of Emory University in Atlanta.

Obama has not said whether he will campaign in the state.

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