Well folks,
I warned you of the coming air campaign between Saxby Chambliss and Jim Martin. It has officially begun. As I am about to explain, Jim Martin appears to be taking an aggressive, albeit risky, challenge to Saxby Chambliss' giant war chest. He's going to need a lot of help to keep the fight going.
So, my fundraising plea, and then the story.
From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's short blog article:
Martin ordered roughly 2 1/2 hours of broadcast airtime to run a total of 294 commercials through next Tuesday.
The cost is $224,445, a heavy buy for a week’s worth of political advertising.
But the sum pales in comparison to the $2.76 million Martin’s incumbent opponent, Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Moultrie, spent to run ads all the way to Election Day. Chambliss’ ads began airing in late August, according to records kept by the Atlanta broadcast stations.
If you do the math, that means Chambliss is spending roughly $300,000 a week until Election Day.
Martin is thus spending just under Saxby's rate, but he appears to be attempting to spend the money as he goes. This means that Jim Martin is out to take the fight to Saxby early and hard, even if that risks difficulties later on. But correctly, Martin realizes that he must get his face on Georgia airwaves to define himself and Saxby, while assuring all of us that he is going to fight every day of this campaign to bring the change that Georgia and the rest of the country sorely needs.
I also received a message in my email from the campaign today. In addition to the run-off/general ads run a few weeks ago, Jim's team has put this together:
Yup, Max Cleland may not be campaigning this time around, but he's definitely on board for a little payback. I know a lot of net-roots folks are ... and with Jim out to spend heavily, it is time to put our money where our mouth is.
Would you be able to help us?
Thank you all very much for listening.