Saxby Chambliss Photo: WDCpix

Republican Saxby Chambliss defeated Democrat Jim Martin in Georgia’s runoff election Tuesday, preventing Democrats from gaining a filibuster-proof “super majority” in the Senate. With 71 percent of precincts reporting, the race was called, The Hill reports, as Martin trailed 61 to 39 percent. Now it’s all eyes on Minnesota — although with a tad less intensity, now that the veto-proof majority is thwarted — as the race between incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman and Democratic challenger Al Franken is the lone remaining seat from Election ‘08 to be decided.

In fact, had Democrats found better candidates in both races, Democrats might not be in this current situation. Minnesota would already be in the bag, and Georgia might have been won on Election Day.

Given that Franken ran 12 points behind Barack Obama (albeit in a contest with a strong third-party candidate), and given that Minnesota had never before elected a Republican senator while voting for a Democratic presidential candidate by a double-digit margin, this conclusions seems fairly unassailable.

Challenging Math: The Strib reports that a win by Al Franken will be something of a long shot: He’ll have to win “6 percent of his challenges of Coleman votes even if Coleman fails to succeed on any of his challenges.” Ramsey County election manager Joe Mansky says historical trends show that’d be difficult. “Franken’s best [and perhaps his only] chance will be in court, not with the recount,” he added.

While Norm Coleman’s campaign puts the gap between the candidates at 282 votes, Team Franken sticks with a lower figure: just 73 votes.

Ballot Challenge: We’ve said it before, the best way to grasp what election officials are up against is to look at the disputed ballots themselves. The Strib kindly offers 599 for your consideration. (h/t Braublog)

Sen. Franken (or Coleman), you’re late for work: Sharon Schmickle writes an important piece at MinnPost today about the possibility of Minnesota’s Senate race not being decided by the time Barack Obama is sworn in as president. Obama is predicted to make his first executive act the signing of economic-recovery legislation, and to make that happen Democrats are already negotiating with colleagues and drafting legislation (Schmickle says Wisconsin Rep. Dave Obey is working on the jobs-creation component now). So even if a victor is declared by Dec. 19, which is hugely unlikely, the winner will already be late for work. Schmickle says some Republicans, alarmed by the financial crisis, will likely cross the aisle to support the Democrats’ package (not without a fight, though), but a Sen. Franken or a Sen. Coleman in Minnesota could make a huge difference.

Palin and Ludicris campaigning: OK, it has little do to with the Minnesota recount — except that it involves another yet-to-be-resolved Senate race that could help give Democrats a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate: Ahead tomorrow’s run-off, Sarah Palin is heading to Georgia today to campaign on behalf of incumbent Sen. Saxby Chambliss.  The big gun Democrat Jim Martin is calling in? Rapper Ludicris.

With Democrats now controlling 57 Senate seats — just shy of the veto-proof majority they’d gain with 60 — all eyes are on Minnesota’s race between Norm Coleman and Al Franken… as Huffington Post’s All-Al-All-the-Time dedicated page (see logo above) suggests. The margin has narrowed considerably between the two, but has held firm most of today at 239.

NBC’s Doug Adams takes a look at the Dems’ journey to 60. If Franken can squeak out a victory, the party will have 58 seats. And a D-column win in Alaska’s race between convicted felon Ted Stevens and Mark Begich would bump it to 59. (Begich trails Stevens by a 3,400 votes, but some 55,000 absentee ballots haven’t been tallied yet.) That leaves the 60th seat up in the air: in George, where neither Republican Saxby Chambliss nor Democrat Jim Martin won a majority vote on Tuesday, a December 2 runoff has been scheduled. John McCain — and possibly even Sarah Palin — will be heading there to campaign on Chambliss’ behalf. A request for a Georgia visit by President-Elect Barack Obama has already been requested by Martin’s campaign.