I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
Apparently two months of crisscrossing of the country at an exhausting pace wasn’t enough for Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
News comes that the former GOP vice presidential candidate is heading to the Peach State — Georgia — next week to campaign for incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss.
Chambliss won the most votes Nov. 4, but failed to gather support from 50 percent of those who cast ballots, meaning that he must now appear in a Dec. 2 runoff with Democrat Jim Martin.
The Georgia Senate race is one of two that are still undecided. The other is in Minnesota, which pits the GOP’s Norm Coleman against comedian Al Franken.
If Democrats take both remaining contests, they’ll reach a pre-election goal of controlling 60 Senate seats, which would be a filibuster-proof majority.
That has raised the stakes in the Georgia senate race, and attracted a who’s who of campaigners from both major political parties.
CNN reports:
Earlier this month, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, campaigned with Chambliss, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney teamed up with Chambliss on Friday.
On the Democratic side, Martin, a former Georgia state lawmaker, has been joined on the trail by former President Clinton and former Vice President Al Gore.
Obama also contributed his voice to the Democrats’ efforts, speaking out in a 60-second radio ad for Martin that hit the airwaves last week.
But do these big-name surrogates make a difference?
“Generally, they can help boost turnout because of all the media attention. Turnout in a runoff election is often very low compared to a presidential election, and each side needs to get as many of their voters to the polls as possible,” said Bill Schneider, CNN’s senior political analyst.
More than $4 million already has been spent on campaign commercials for the runoff election, according to new numbers from the Campaign Media Analysis Group.
The Chambliss campaign and the National Republican Senatorial Committee have spent a little more than $1.7 million in ad time since the day after the November 4 vote, with Martin’s campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee putting out more than $1.6 million, according to numbers from the Campaign Media Analysis Group.
Outside groups account for the remaining $770,000 in campaign commercial spending. The vast majority of that money came from Freedom’s Watch, a group that backs Republican candidates.
“This shows that there is still a lot at stake, this runoff is giving campaign ’08 a final act. Who would have predicted this, a red state Senate race with groups from the political left free spending and groups from the right clearly not taking this for granted?” asked Evan Tracey, CNN’s campaign media analyst and chief operating officer of TNS Media Intelligence/CMAG.
Democrats so far have picked up seven Senate seats in this year’s election, with the Republican seats in Georgia and Minnesota still undecided.
