21st Century Democrats, a national organization with a long term mission to train progressives and build the network of populist Democrats, announced Wednesday that they would be coordinating volunteers to assist Jim Martin in his December 2nd run-off election against Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss.
The Democratic group's involvement with Georgia's U.S. Senate race is part of a partnership with the group No Voter Left Behind.net to make sure that every vote is counted in the 12 close federal and state-level election races across the nation that remain undecided.
"Our whole purpose for existing is to make sure that Republicans do not steal elections in 2008 the way that they did in 2000 and 2004. Our mission is to make sure that every vote is counted," Jennifer Petty, spokesperson for No Voter Left Behind.net, said. "We still have a chance to reach our goal of 60 Democrats in the Senate, with four races still undecided. And Democrats are in a position to further solidify their control of the U.S. House with four additional seats."
"We need volunteers and financial supporters to get involved in making sure that GOP election theft strategies don't succeed even though Election Day has come and gone," Petty continued.
No Voter Left Behind.net also announced that they would be recruiting volunteers and contributors to help Democrat Jim Powell in his run-off campaign for a seat on Georgia's Public Service Commission. Powell's opponent in the run-off is former Public Service Commissioner Lauren McDonald.
The organization said they were involving themselves in this race because of the "dogged effort by Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel, who tried -- despite multiple court rulings -- for months to keep him off the ballot." A final, unanimous ruling by the Georgia Supreme Court last week kept Powell on the ballot and a strong showing in Tuesday's election set up the Powell/McDonald December run-off.
No Voter Left Behind.net was founded by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and counts among its members former Maryland Lt. Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and former Democratic National Committee Chairman Don Fowler.