For Parties and Outside Groups, Election Spending Continues

A handful of political groups are continuing to wage heated election battles in a couple of undecided House and Senate races, even though most of the political establishment has turned its attention to the transitions taking place at the White House and in Congress.

A Senate seat in Georgia and a House seat in Louisiana are still up for grabs and attracting cash from outside groups as well as the two parties.

In Georgia, Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss is likely to face a Dec. 2 run-off against Democratic challenger Jim Martin after returns indicated he failed to win a majority of the vote in the Nov. 4 election. Georgia election officials have not yet certified the results, but already interest groups are starting to gear up their independent spending in the run-off.

The antitax group Club for Growth endorsed Chambliss on Friday and will be tapping supporters for contributions, club spokeswoman Nachama Soloveichik said. The group’s political action committee also reported spending $12,000 on mail and e-mail costs over the weekend to help Chambliss. The groups has not yet decided whether to run ads in the race, said Soloveichik.

The conservative non-profit group Freedom’s Watch, meanwhile, has put up television ads in Georgia criticizing Martin’s position on taxes. The group reported spending $519,000 on ads over the weekend, but it was unclear how much, if any, of the money went to ad buys in Georgia.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee is also getting behind Chambliss by putting staff on the ground to help out and by conducting aggressive fundraising, spokeswoman Rebecca Fisher said. The Chambliss campaign, the NRSC and the Georgia Republican Party also formed a joint fundraising committee Nov. 10 to expand their fundraising outreach. Fisher said the NRSC is still trying to figure out how much of its own money will be available to spend on the race.

Martin, who trailed Chambliss in the Nov. 4 vote 46.8 percent to 49.8 percent with 99 percent of precincts reporting, is getting support from Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, although DSCC spokeswoman Hannah August declined to say how that help would be delivered.

The parties are also investing money in Louisiana’s 4th District, which was postponed until Dec. 6 due to hurricanes in the gulf region. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee reported spending $77,000 on advertising Nov. 7 in support of Democrat [@2url@Paul J. Carmouche@http://www.carmoucheforcongress.com/about.html@]. The National Republican Congressional Committee put up ads earlier this week in support of Republican John Fleming. The NRCC has not yet filed disclosure reports detailing the costs, but has reserved $330,000 worth of air time for the race, a committee aide said.

Rachel Kapochunas contributed to this report.