Senate, 8th District candidates to square off tonight at Georgia National Fair

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.

• IF YOU GO
  

  What: U.S. Senate and 8th Congressional District candidates' public forum at the Georgia National Fair
  When: 7 tonight
  Where: Georgia National Fairgrounds and Agricenter, Perry
  Cost: Adults, $8; senior citizens, $7 (fair admission)

  The debates also will be shown on WMAZ from 12:30-2 p.m. Saturday

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The television station and the AARP are co-sponsoring the debate, which will be moderated by WMAZ anchor Frank Malloy. A panel, including Associated Press editor Don Schanche Jr., WMAZ reporter Randall Savage and WALB Albany anchor Ben Roberts, will ask questions. Candidates also will get to ask one question of their opponents.

Fair admission is required to attend, but there is no additional cost.

Two men are looking to unseat Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., in the Senate race: Democrat Jim Martin, who is a former legislator and head of the Georgia Department of Human Resources, and Libertarian Allen Buckley, an Atlanta area CPA and attorney.

"I hope to make it clear to voters that our country has very significant financial problems," Buckley wrote in an e-mail to The Telegraph. "Saxby is a significant piece of the problem, Jim Martin won't do anything to fix the problems (rather, he'll make them worse) and I have the financial background and willpower to fight to get our country headed in the right direction. I'm the only option for real significant positive change."

Martin's campaign manager, Ellery Gould, said Martin is "looking forward to the debate and is confident that voters are going to come away with a clear understanding that Jim is going to make the economy work for the middle class again by helping reverse the failed Bush economic policies that Saxby Chambliss has been supporting all these years."

In the 8th District, retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Rick Goddard is the Republican nominee facing U.S. Rep. Jim Marshall.

"We're just looking forward to speaking directly to Georgians," Goddard campaign manager Lonnie Dietz said.

To contact writer Travis Fain, call 744-4213.