Roy Barnes and Nathan Deal are trolling for votes on the Georgia coast. It's a region that helped send Barnes to the governor's mansion in 1998 but may lean more Republican now that he's seeking his old job back.

Barnes greeted about 70 supporters Friday in downtown Savannah. The Democrat predicted a close race next Tuesday and said the coast and other parts of southern Georgia could be a deciding battleground.

Deal was joining other Republican candidates on St. Simons Island at a shrimp boil for football fans headed to the Georgia-Florida game Saturday.

Barnes carried Georgia's six coastal counties by a healthy margin in 1998, but narrowly lost the region four years later when Governor Sonny Perdue ousted him from office. Perdue won the coast handily in his 2006 re-election bid.

Tags: Nathan Deal, Roy Barnes, gubernatorial race, Georgia Governor's Race 2010, Georgia elections 2010