Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R) Elected 2002, 1st term up 2008
Born:	Nov. 10, 1943, Warrenton, NC
Home:	Moultrie
Education:	U. of GA, B.A. 1966, U. of TN, J.D. 1968
Religion:	Episcopalian
Marital Status:	married (Julianne)
Elected  Office:	U.S. House of Reps., 1994-02.
Professional Career:	Practicing atty., 1968-94.
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Saxby Chambliss, the junior Senator from Georgia, was elected in 2002 after serving four terms in the House. Chambliss grew up in Shreveport, Louisiana, the son of an Episcopalian minister, went to college in Georgia, and practiced business and agriculture law in Moultrie starting in 1968. In 1992 he ran for the House and lost the Republican primary; in 1994 he was the sole Republican candidate, while Democrats, as in days of yore, had a multi-candidate contest. The winner was Craig Mathis, the 32-year-old son of Congressman (1971-81) Dawson Mathis and a former House staffer. Chambliss called for targeting repeat offenders and reducing the deficit; he opposed Dick Armey's proposal to zero out peanut subsidies. Chambliss won 63%-37%.

In the House, Speaker Newt Gingrich saw that Chambliss got the committee assignments he needed most--Armed Services, to look after Warner Robins Air Force Base near Macon, and Agriculture, to protect subsidies for peanut farmers in the counties to the south. In his first term Chambliss toured every military base in Georgia and worked with locals to remove Warner Robins, an air logistics center, from the final Base Closing Commission list in 1995. To protect the peanut and cotton programs, Chambliss and four other Republicans voted against the Freedom to Farm Act in committee, which defeated it temporarily; when the leadership folded the farm bill into the budget, Chambliss threatened to oppose it but backed down under pressure. In 2001 he helped draft the farm bill provisions that phased out the peanut quota program--evidently he concluded there was just not enough support to maintain it--but to compensate quota holders.

In November 1998, Speaker-designate Bob Livingston put Chambliss on the Budget Committee and named him Vice Chairman; in July 1999 Budget Chairman John Kasich announced his retirement and Chambliss started a campaign for the post. In July 2000, after Senator Paul Coverdell died suddenly, Chambliss considered running in the November election to replace him; he had also considered running for governor in 1998. But Speaker Dennis Hastert persuaded him to stay in the House, and Chambliss came away feeling he would get the Budget chair. But he had competition from Jim Nussle, who was supported by Majority Leader Dick Armey. The Republican Steering Committee interviewed both candidates and in December 2000 picked Nussle. Chambliss got an Agriculture subcommittee chairmanship and Hastert made him head of a working group on terrorism. After September 11, Hastert made that into an Intelligence Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security.

These were obviously good political credentials for a Senate candidacy, and Chambliss had two other reasons to consider challenging Democratic Senator Max Cleland in 2002. One was Cleland's narrow 49%-48% margin of victory in 1996 and Georgia's Republican trend, evident in George W. Bush's 55%-43% margin there in 2000. The other was the uncertainty of his House seat. Democratic redistricters passed a plan in September 2001 that left him with two unpleasant options: run in a primary against Savannah-based 1st District Republican incumbent Jack Kingston or in the new Democratic-leaning 3d District. The Bush White House and campaign committee Chairman Bill Frist urged Chambliss to run for the Senate, and in October 2001 he announced he would.

Chambliss was not an initial favorite to win. Cleland had a compelling biography. After college he volunteered for the Army and went to Vietnam in 1967; he lost both legs and his right arm when a loose grenade exploded. In 1982 he was elected Georgia Secretary of State and was reelected three times by wide margins. In October 1995, after Senator Sam Nunn announced his retirement after four terms, he ran for the Senate and had no primary opposition. Against Republican businessman Guy Millner, Cleland won 49%-48%. He served on the Armed Services Committee and had a moderate voting record by the standards of some Democratic senators, but in 2001 and 2002 he tended to stick with the close-knit Democratic Caucus while his new colleague, Zell Miller, dissented vociferously on issues from the tax cut to the Department of Homeland Security personnel rules.

In the weeks after announcing Chambliss made one embarrassing mistake. To a crowd in Valdosta he said in November 2001 that the way to improve homeland security was to "just turn loose Lowndes County Sheriff Ashley Paulk loose and let him arrest every Muslim that comes across the state line," and then tried to get the Valdosta Daily Times not to print the remark; he said he was just joking. But he retained the support of the Bush White House and Georgia Republican insiders, and was able to win an easy victory over state Representative Bob Irvin in the August 2002 primary, 61%-27%, carrying all but two of Georgia's 159 counties and every one in metro Atlanta. "From Rabun Gap to Tybee Light, voters continue to tell me that Max Cleland is too liberal for Georgia," he said on primary election night.

Cleland's two major strengths--his sacrifice in Vietnam and his support from the highly popular Zell Miller--seemed formidable. In ads and speeches Cleland referred often to his service in Vietnam and of course the sacrifice he made was visible to everyone. Cleland supporters noted that Chambliss had received four student deferments in the 1960s and then was found ineligible for service because of a bad knee. Moreover, Cleland pointed out, he voted for the use of military force in Iraq in 1998, in Kosovo in 1999 and in the war on terrorism in September 2001, and he voted for the use of force against Iraq in October 2002. Miller, in ads, told voters of Cleland's "rock solid Georgia values" and said, "Don't let them fool you." But that did not deter Chambliss from launching sharp attacks. He ran a series of 10-second spots, mentioning Cleland's opposition to an amendment banning aid for schools that barred the Boy Scouts, his votes against the partial-birth abortion ban, his support of school clinics passing out morning-after pills without parental permission, his vote against confirming Attorney General John Ashcroft, his vote against speeding elimination of the marriage penalty--all ending with an apparently astounded announcer asking, "Why would he do that?" Chambliss burnished his own national security issues by talking of his work on Armed Services and the Terrorism Subcommittee, and in October 2002 he was endorsed by the Veterans of Foreign Wars, which was evidently still unhappy with Cleland's support of VA budget cuts in 1979. A late September poll showed Cleland still ahead 51%-42%, but only barely over 50%.

But probably the most important issue was homeland security. Cleland stood with other Senate Democrats in opposing the degree of flexibility over work rules in the new department. The dispute occupied the Senate for much of October; it prevented passage of the bill. On the other side, standing loudly in his support of Bush and his opposition to the other Senate Democrats was Zell Miller. Chambliss ran an ad, much attacked in the press, showing pictures of Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and Max Cleland, and saying that Cleland "voted against the President's vital homeland security efforts 11 times." Against this, Cleland's ads attacking Chambliss for opposing an increase in the minimum wage and financing children's health insurance, for cutting student loans and school aid for the disabled, were weak stuff. In an October 27 debate, Cleland, echoing John Randolph of Roanoke on Henry Clay, said that the Osama Bin Laden ad was "like a mackerel in the moonlight--it both shines and stinks at the same time." But Cleland's record in Vietnam did not inoculate him against charges that he had given short shrift to homeland security.

The tide of opinion, as measured by very late polls, was moving toward Chambliss. George W. Bush visited the state three times in his behalf, with visits to Atlanta and Savannah the Saturday before the election. On Election Day Chambliss won 53%-46%, a much bigger margin than just about anyone expected for either candidate. Chambliss, though from south Georgia, carried metro Atlanta 52%-47%, running ahead of Republican governor candidate Sonny Perdue, and he carried the rest of Georgia 54%-45%. It was a slightly stronger showing than Paul Coverdell made running for reelection to the Senate four years before, primarily because of increased turnout and increasing Republican percentages in the outer counties of metro Atlanta. In the three black-majority counties of 20-county metro Atlanta (Fulton, DeKalb and Clayton), turnout was up 26,000 from 1998 and the Democratic margin up 34,000. But in the other 17 counties, turnout was up 123,000 and the Republican margin was up 40,000.

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416 RSOB 20510, 202-224-3521; Fax: 202-224-0103

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Committees

• Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry: Marketing, Inspection & Product Promotion; Production & Price Competitiveness.
• Armed Services: Airland; Emerging Threats & Capabilities; Personnel (Chmn.); Readiness & Management Support.
• Intelligence (Select).
• Judiciary: Antitrust, Competition Policy & Consumer Rights; Constitution, Civil Rights & Property Rights; Immigration, Border Security & Citizenship (Chmn.); Terrorism, Technology & Homeland Security.
• Rules & Administration.

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	CON	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2002	0	7	0	0	25	88	53	90	100	89	100
2001	0	--	0	0	--	--	65	95	100	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2001 LIB	--	2001 CONS		2002 LIB	--	2002 CONS
Economic	13%	--	86%		13%	--	85%
Social	32%	--	67%		0%	--	75%
Foreign	21%	--	74%		0%	--	85%
For National Journal's complete 2002 Vote Ratings, as well as previous ratings dating back to 1995, please click here.

Key Votes Of The 107th Congress (More Info)
1. Approve Bush Tax Cuts Y 2. Limit Patients' Bill of Rights Y 3. Campaign Finance Reform N 4. Ban ANWR Development N 5. Faith-Based Charities Y 6. Bar Gays in the Boy Scouts *		7. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion Y  8. Arm Commercial Pilots *  9. Trade Promotion Authority Y 10. Bar Funds for Intl. Court Y 11. Authorize Force in Iraq Y 12. Deny Home. Sec. Dept. Union Y

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2002 general	Saxby Chambliss (R)	1,071,153	53%	$7,743,004
	Max Cleland (D)	931,857	46%	$9,116,775
	Other	26,981	1%
2002 primary	Saxby Chambliss (R)	300,371	61%
	Bob Irvin (R)	132,132	27%
	Robert Brown (R)	59,109	12%
Prior winning percentages: 2000 House (59%); 1998 House (62%); 1996 House (53%); 1994 House (63%)