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Atlanta: Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss easily won a run-off election in Georgia on Tuesday, denying Democrats the chance for a 60-seat "super majority" in the Senate that would have enabled them to pass legislation virtually at will.
Chambliss, an incumbent who first won his US Senate seat in 2002, defeated Democrat Jim Martin for the seat in a race that gained national significance because Democrats and their independent allies held 58 of the 100 seats in the US Senate after the November 4 election.
One seat in Minnesota, subject to a recount because the vote count was so close, remains undecided.
A 60-seat majority would have enabled Democrats to overcome procedural hurdles set up by Republicans, who are the minority in the Senate. Such a majority would have been particularly potent with a Democratic president, Barack Obama, moving into the White House on January 20.
"You have delivered tonight a strong message to the world that conservative Georgia values matter," Chambliss, 65, told cheering supporters in his victory speech.
Martin, a 63-year-old former state legislator, thanked his supporters and said the defeat was "a sad moment."
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