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ATLANTA - State Senate Democrats will push into 2009 with unchanged leadership, after the caucus unanimously re-elected its officers Wednesday.

Caucus members again backed Sen. Robert Brown of Macon as minority leader, Sen. Tim Golden of Valdosta as caucus chair, and Sen. Kasim Reed of Atlanta and Sen. Valencia Seay of Riverdale as caucus vice chairs.

Also re-elected were Sen. Horacena Tate of Atlanta as caucus secretary, Sen. David Adelman of Decatur as minority whip, and Sen. J.B. Powell of Blythe and Sen. Gloria Butler of Stone Mountain as assistant minority whips.

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.

Drought conditions across the northern half of Georgia are worsening, with water levels in lakes and streams at near record levels, state Climatologist David Stooksbury said Thursday. storyPhotos();

Thurmond Lake and the two reservoirs upstream on the Savannah River -- Lakes Hartwell and Russell -- are at or near record low levels, Dr. Stooksbury said. "Both Russell and (Thurmond) have less than two feet of usable pool left."

On the heels of Sen. Barack Obama's landslide victory in the presidential race, a re-energized Columbia County Democratic Party hopes to ride the momentum through to the 2010 elections.

"I think we're on the high part of the wave, and we're just going to keep on riding it," county Democratic Party Chairwoman Rosemary Fitzpatrick said during a meeting of the party Monday at the Evans Government Complex.

By Matt Barnwell - mbarnwell@macon.com

State Rep. Allen Freeman has conceded defeat to Democratic challenger James "Bubber" Epps in the House District 140 race.

Freeman, a Republican from Macon, called Epps to congratulate him on his victory after returning home from an out-of-town field trip with his daughter's class Friday.

Politics never stops. It just waits around a corner to punch you in the face and take your wallet.

Which is another way of saying that, with the presidential election behind us, the Georgia General Assembly is now gearing up.

The session's first day is Jan. 12, and House Republicans will gather Monday at the Capitol for their caucus elections.

Georgia has gotten itself into a real pickle, soaked in brine of its own making. Gov. Sonny Perdue made the call last summer for state agencies to cut budgets by 6 percent due to declining revenues, and a projected shortfall that may reach $2.5 billion. State workers have been furloughed, either permanently or temporarily. Every state agency from the public defenders office to the Georgia State Patrol has been affected.

DECATUR, Ga. -- More than 540,000 ballots have already been cast in Georgia, including many from the Democratic strongholds of metropolitan Atlanta in what could be an encouraging sign for Barack Obama's presidential bid.

Black voters have made up a disproportionately high percentage of early voters, accounting for 37 percent of Georgia's early voters. Blacks represent 29 percent of the state's 5.6 million registered voters.

Candidates for the U.S. Senate and the 8th Congressional District, which includes Macon, Warner Robins and much of Middle Georgia, will debate tonight at the Georgia National Fair in Perry.

All three candidates for the Senate, and both candidates in the 8th District race, said they plan to attend. The Senate debate starts at 7 p.m. at the Reaves Arena at the fair and should last about an hour. After an intermission, the 8th District debate will begin and last about a half-hour. Both debates will be shown Saturday on WMAZ.

State policymakers are considering a change in teacher retirement pay, shifting twice-a-year cost-of-living increases from a guarantee to something that would have to be voted on.

Retired educators now receive 1.5 percent increases automatically each January and July, according to the Teachers Retirement System of Georgia, which manages retirement funds for 75,000 retired members and 272,000 nonretired educators.