Republicans in Georgia treated Sarah Palin like a rock star on Monday — what else is new? — but Democrats had Palin on their minds, too. That's because Maryline Blackburn, the woman who beat Palin in the 1984 Miss Alaska pagent, sang the national anthem at an event Monday night.

She was inroduced by Jim Martin, the Democratic senatorial candidate, as "Georgia's own Miss Alaska."

Georgians vote today in a runoff election between Martin and Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss.

Blackburn, who lives in the Atlanta suburb of Smyrna, is a singer who has recorded four albums in the pop, rock, R&B and gospel genres, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

She's lived in Atlanta for 22 years, but she grew up in Fairbanks, Alaska. Palin was first runner up in the competition.

Blackburn's first impression of Palin (then Sarah Heath): "Oh my god, she’s gorgeous — she’ll probably be the one who wins."

Then she says she noticed something else, something the rest of the nation now knows:

“She had this look about her, this look in her eyes that tells you she’s calculating, figuring out ‘How am I going to win this competition,’ ” Blackburn said. “There was a determination there.”