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By Doug Cunningham

[Acuff]: “It all is coming together. We’re very hopeful. In fact, we’re very confident.”

The AFL-CIO’s Stewart Acuff, in Georgia running a labor get out the vote effort in the U.S. Senate runoff election being held there today. Acuff says labor’s effort and the Democratic effort on behalf of candidate Jim Martin is highly energized.

[Acuff]: “We definitely have the energy on our side. We definitely have more enthusiasm on our side. In fact, I’ve never seen Democratic voters as enthusiastic as they are right now in a runoff election. I think that has a lot to do with momentum generated by the Barack Obama victory, it has a lot to do with the feeling that the country is changing, it has a lot to do with the sense that this is our time, our moment.

One issue hurting Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss, Acuff says, is Chambliss’ refusal to honor a subpoena in a civil lawsuit filed by families of 14 workers killed in an industrial accident at Imperial Sugar. Chambliss has a relationship with that company.

[Acuff 3]: “This is very extraordinary for a sitting U.S. Senator to refuse to answer a subpoena in a lawsuit involving the deaths of 14 people in a horrific industrial accident.”