Romney To Campaign For Chambliss In Georgia; Gore To Stump For Martin

Atlanta, GA (AHN) - Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will be campaigning for Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) late this week. His visit follows visits by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in the Peach state for the first-term Republican senator.

Romney will headline a rally for Chambliss at the Intercontinental Hotel in Atlanta Friday morning. The former Republican presidential hopeful later in the afternoon will hold another rally at the Charles H. Morris Center in Savannah.

Romney's political action committee, Free and Strong America, recently donated $5,000 to Chambliss' runoff campaign. His support came as early voting for the Dec. 2 contest began, and as McCain and Huckabee returned to the campaign trail to prevent anther Senate Democratic victory.

Democrats are only two seats away from getting the 60-vote majority they need to stop Republican filibusters in the Senate. Only one other race remains uncertain: in Minnesota, where on Wednesday a statewide, hand recount of nearly 3 million ballots cast for Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) AND Democratic-Farmer-Labor candidate Al Franken began.

Results of the race between Chambliss and Democrat Jim Martin were certified last Thursday. It has the Republican leading with 49.8 percent, or 1,867,090 votes, while Martin trails with 46.8 percent, or 1,757,419 votes State law requires that if no candidate gets 50 percent plus one of the vote, the top two candidates face off again.

Martin, who served for nearly two decades in the state House of Representatives, campaigned with former President Bill Clinton on Wednesday in Atlanta. He will also have former Vice President Al Gore stumping for him on Sunday, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, when a runoff debate to be moderated by PBS' Judy Woodruff has been proposed.