DEXTER, Ga. - Wearing a cowboy hat and mirrored sunglasses as he took in the annual Possum Hollow festival, Bob Holloway is not shy about his thoughts on politics.

"I hate the liberals. It makes me nauseous just talking about it. They're notorious for raising taxes and throwing away more cotton-pickin' money," the self-employed trucking operator said as he wandered through the outdoor crafts fair where vendors sold fried peach tarts and people debated whether the "possum stew" really contained possum.

Confident that such sentiment runs deep in middle Georgia's 8th Congressional District, Republican strategists have been working overtime to convince voters here that incumbent Democratic Rep. Jim Marshall is a liberal. Anybody who's clicked on a television in the last few weeks has seen ads linking Marshall with brash Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts or the "San Francisco liberal," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

With a month left before Election Day, the label may not be sticking: Many Republican voters here say they don't buy claims that Marshall is left-wing.

"He's a member of the NRA," said Roy Hall III, a banker from Dublin who described himself as "definitely Republican" but who plans to vote for Marshall over Republican challenger Mac Collins. "I think he's pretty conservative. I don't agree with him on everything, but I think I agree with him more."

The problem for Republicans is that Marshall, a Vietnam War veteran from Macon who was recently inducted into the Army Ranger Hall of Fame, simply doesn't fit the liberal bill, said Chris Grant, a political science professor at Mercer University in Macon who has closely tracked the race.

"My opinion is that the attacks seem to be a little too strong, and that makes them a little less credible," Grant said. "Marshall has spent four years making sure you knew that he wasn't a liberal, and he's been pretty effective at making that case."

Marshall has been so supportive of President Bush on the Iraq war, for example, that he was the lone House Democrat to attend a private party at Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's house last year when Rumsfeld deputy Paul Wolfowitz stepped down.

On social issues, Marshall has supported GOP proposals to amend the Constitution to ban flag burning and gay marriage. He has regularly backed Republican tax-cut packages and voted in favor of a House GOP immigration bill that was too strong even for President Bush.

In fact, Marshall has criticized Collins from the right on immigration, accusing the Republican of being soft for supporting a temporary work program for illegal immigrants.

Collins, a former congressman from Jackson who lost a Republican primary two years ago for the Senate seat vacated by maverick Democrat Zell Miller, insists there are major differences between him and Marshall. On energy, for example, Collins said he supports opening Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, something Marshall has voted against.

Collins also said he would have voted against renewing the Voting Rights Act extension that Congress approved this summer, arguing that it unfairly singles out Southern jurisdictions for continued federal elections monitoring.

But in a recent speech, Collins himself acknowledged Marshall's popularity among some conservatives, telling business leaders in Warner Robins that, "If you like Jim Marshall, you'll love me."

Asked in an interview why Republicans have focused on Pelosi and other more liberal Democrats instead of Marshall, Collins said voters should look at the big picture.

"This whole campaign is about who's going to control the House of Representatives in the next Congress. And there is a difference," Collins said, repeating criticism that a vote for Marshall could deliver Pelosi to the House's top post.

Democrats and Republicans have pursued similar strategies across the country, trying to link local candidates with more controversial national politicians, such as Pelosi, Kennedy, President Bush and former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

James Rockefeller, a Macon attorney and Democratic booster, said that even with Marshall's record, he worried that the ad blitz attacking the incumbent could influence the Georgia race.

"Down here, the Ted Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi stuff plays very well," he said. "That concerns me."

Grant, who found Marshall to have a commanding lead in polling he conducted a year ago, said Collins probably still has a long way to go.

The liberal attacks, he said, "may be the kind of thing you have to do when you have an incumbent congressman with 60 percent support and you need to rough him up some."