Victorious Chambliss looks for bigger role in GOP

A double digit win in Georgia's U.S. Senate runoff could make Saxby Chambliss a star in a Republican party hungry for fresh leadership. Just weeks ago, he was battling for political survival after neither he nor his Democratic opponent got more than 50 percent of the vote in the general election, forcing Tuesday's runoff, which Chambliss won handily.

Now, with his party searching for new leaders and a new identity, he could gain a prominent national profile, political experts said.

Chambliss, 65, will return for a second term in Washington, this time as a self-proclaimed firewall against President-elect Barack Obama and his Democratic agenda.

His win - which denied Democrats a filibuster-proof Senate majority - was a rare bit of good news for Republicans, reeling this year after ceding more seats in Congress and losing the White House. He beat Democrat Jim Martin 57 percent to 43 percent.

"He's looked upon as the one bright spot for Republicans this election cycle," said Brian Darling, director of Senate Relations at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank. "Chambliss winning this runoff by such a significant margin is a sign that not all is lost for Republicans. They still have a heartbeat. The party will remember that."

Chambliss acknowledged at a news conference Wednesday that the runoff has boosted his national stature. That, combined with his rising seniority in the Senate's depleted GOP ranks, will give him a louder voice.

Already he was offering his tattered party advice, saying his victory proves the GOP needs to get back to its conservative roots.

"The basic principles that Ronald Reagan talked about in the '80s are just as important today," Chambliss said. "If we return to those basic core values we can continue to be successful in future elections."

He said he expects his runoff campaign, which emphasized a meat-and-potatoes GOP menu of low taxes, small government, gun rights and opposition to abortion, to be a model for Republicans trying to regroup in 2010.

Such issues play well among the conservative base in reliably Republican Georgia, where Chambliss had been expected to cruise to a general election win Nov. 4. But that was before the economy went sour and he was forced to defend his vote for the $700 billion financial services bailout.

Martin was helped along by a surge of Democratic voters energized by Obama.

The race was thrown into a runoff after none of the three Senate candidates crossed the 50 percent threshold. Martin, a 63-year-old former state lawmaker, had been trounced two years earlier in the lower-profile race for lieutenant governor. But he only trailed Chambliss by 3 percentage points Nov. 4.

With the balance of power in the Senate at stake, both candidates drew big political names to Georgia. The national parties spent millions of dollars on ads.

GOP presidential candidate John McCain came to the state to stump for Chambliss, as did most of the Republican White House field.

Martin drew visits from former President Bill Clinton and his Vice President Al Gore.

On the runoff campaign's final day, Chambliss brought in McCain's running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who drew cheering crowds of thousands at four rallies around the state. Martin - looking to attract black voters critical to the state's Democratic base - gathered with the rappers Ludacris and T.I., convicted of federal weapons charges.

Still, Obama voters did not come back to the polls for Martin, at least not in large enough numbers. Obama never paid a visit to the state for Martin, although he did record a radio ad and an automated phone call for him.

About 2.1 million Georgians, about 35 percent of registered voters, cast ballots in Tuesday's runoff. That's a little more than half of the 3.7 million who voted in the general election.