Runoff Central

Important information for today's runoff election:

Today, we are within striking distance of electing Jim Martin to the US Senate and Jim Powell to the Georgia Public Service Commission. We're here because across the state, Georgians like you have stood up to take their country and their state back.

ATLANTA -- Former Vice President Al Gore had a simple message Sunday night for U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga.

"It's time for him to go," Mr. Gore said.

The former vice president and Tennessee senator spoke at a fundraiser for Sen. Chambliss' Democratic opponent in Georgia's Dec. 2 Senate runoff election, Jim Martin, at Mason Murer art gallery in Midtown Atlanta.

Former U.S. Department of Energy official Jim Powell has the skills that will help the state Public Service Commission and consumers.

JIM POWELL'S position as an experienced outsider is what Georgians need on the Public Service Commission.

ATLANTA --- Former Vice President Al Gore on Sunday night called on Georgians to seize the mantle of change in the state's nationally watched U.S. Senate runoff, arguing that a vote for Democrat Jim Martin would put "government on the side of the people again." storyPhotos();

"You realize that the eyes of the nation are on this race in Georgia," Mr. Gore told several hundred cheering Democrats at a $125-a-person Martin fundraiser at an Atlanta art gallery.

Mr. Martin is locked in a Dec. 2 runoff with first-term Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss.

Former Vice President Al Gore urged about 600 cheering people in Atlanta on Sunday night to vote for Jim Martin on Dec. 2 to help bring about "historic change" in Georgia and the nation.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner, who lost a close 2000 presidential bid to President George W. Bush, took direct aim at Martin's opponent, incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss.

Imperial Sugar Co. CEO John Sheptor defended the conduct of Saxby Chambliss on Wednesday, saying the U.S. senator from Georgia has "behaved appropriately with character and integrity at all times."

The comments came after Imperial Sugar executives and workers broke ground on a new packaging warehouse at the Port Wentworth plant, damaged in the Feb. 7 explosions and fire that killed 14 workers and injured scores more.

'Hopes of America are riding with Georgia,' former president tells Clark Atlanta crowd.

Former President Bill Clinton urged Georgia voters on Wednesday to send the man who will sit in his former office one more deputy - Jim Martin.

Clinton told a chilly crowd at Clark Atlanta University to return to the polls on Dec. 2 and elect Martin to the U.S. Senate and reject incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss.

Martin, Clinton said, is "the kind of guy we ought to have in public life. His opponent was elected on a false premise six years ago and is running on a false premise today."

ATLANTA (AP) -- Donna Brazile, a well-known Democratic pundit who led Al Gore's White House bid, is coming to Georgia to help Jim Martin.

Brazile will be advising Martin's runoff campaign against Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss.

Brazile said in an e-mail to Democrats that she "cleared her calendar" after learning Martin had forced a runoff with Chambliss.

Brazile has some experience with runoffs. She helped Sen. Mary Landrieu win a 2002 runoff in her native Louisiana.