Bill Clinton was the first major Democratic figure to step into the Georgia runoff, but he won't be the last. His Vice President, Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore, has joined the fray on behalf of Orange to Blue Democrat Jim Martin:
Jim Martin, the Democratic candidate in the contentious Georgia Senate runoff, is getting a big Democratic name coming into the state for him: Al Gore, who will be going to Georgia on Sunday, a Martin campaign source confirmed to Election Central.
Martin is still the underdog against incumbent GOP Sen. Saxby Chambliss, but this race remains on the table. The runoff election is expected to have very low turnout -- it's effectively the same as a special election in many ways -- and as such will be all about ginning up turnout among the party base.
As TPM states, turnout is the key for a runoff election. Clinton's visit tomorrow, and Gore's on Sunday, ought to help. An Obama visit - or television ad - would help even more.
But Martin has received one major assist in spurring turnout - from the AFL-CIO.
The AFL-CIO, which helped prove labor's organizing muscle with its formidable ground game in the battleground states, is now ramping up big time in the high-stakes Georgia runoff, putting in place an operation that it bills as the largest effort the federation has ever taken for what is effectively a special election.
They're doing a mailer to 80,000 homes, and they're looking not only to increase that dramatically, but get out a small army of volunteers:
AFL shifted field staff from around the country to the state last week and is aiming to recruit in the neighborhood of 10,000 volunteers between now and the voting early next month. AFL is also hoping to drop over half a million pieces of mail in the next couple of weeks and mounting an aggressive door-knocking operation.
Every vote counts in a low-turnout runoff, every mailer, every ad, and every dollar.
On the web: Jim Martin for U.S. Senate Orange to Blue ActBlue Page
