The Georgia District Six Fiasco

Jon Ossaff                Karen Handel

The Democratic Party is showing more signs of serious problems within as the Georgia Sixth Congressional District special election to replace Rep. Tom Price who became the Secretary of Health and Human Services only bought them to the brink of success, but teasingly out-of-reach after they spent over eight million Dollars!

Jon Ossoff, age 30, an "investigative filmmaker," without portfolio, has long been involved in Georgia and Democratic national politics first interning for Representative John Lewis, famous for getting hit in the head with a packing crate on the Selma Civil Rights march in 1965 with no visible effect and Hank Johnson famous for his asking a Pentagon General if the island of Guam would "tip over" if they expanded the U.S. Marines base causing many to wonder if Hank got hit in the head instead of John. 

To his credit the General did not break up, get mad or call Representative Johnson an idiot.  Hank had laid other such "eggs," but this was "the big one."  Thus young Mr. Ossoff has had some outstanding Democratic tutors and idols to emulate.  With such a background it would almost be fun to see him win.  The guy has to be a crackup and we saw signs of it in his first TV appearances and victory speech.

Mr. Ossoff gave an interesting signal in his victory speech saying, "(It) was a victory for the ages!" after the DNC spent $8.5 million on it for the most expensive campaign for a House primary in history and 95% of the money came from out-of-state.  It was only a "victory" in terms of fund raising. 

The goal was to get more than 50% of the votes and he did not. He was well under with 48.3%, but far ahead of Republican Karen Handel's winning 19%.  She was running against ten other candidates so comparisons are very difficult if not impossible.  She was a popular Georgia Secretary of State and will be a formidable candidate as all Republican voters are expected to support her.

The Democrats are desperate for a victory of any kind to claim a referendum on Donald J. Trump.  How can one local election confirm such a concept?  It is impossible to extrapolate nationally from one state election, much less one House District.  The only conclusion is that they are unwilling to deal with the reality that they have become inappropriate, out-of-step, looking corrupt.

Mr Ossoff is 30 years of age, born in 1987, the son of a "specialty publisher" and politically active mother who founded the "New Power" Political Action Committee with a mission to elect women.  With politically active parents he got an internship with Representative John Lewis.  He is a graduate of Georgetown University, the most expensive college in the nation, earning a BA degree in Foreign Relations.  He went on for an MS from the London School of Economics in 2013.  His Masters thesis was entitled "US Trade With China."  Clearly, this young man has been grooming for a career in high end Democrat Politics.

Mr. Ossoff's intentions and behaviors are at odds:  The rules for this election require he must live in the Sixth Congressional District, but he does not.  He resides a short distance away with a girl friend who is in medical school.  When asked on TV, "Are you going to marry her?" he gave a very political, "tap dancing" answer that he didn't want to say anything about it and that he would make an announcement when appropriate.  The hostess interviewer rephrased the question he gave the same answer word-for-word.  This is a carefully scripted, rehearsed man.

Where it is axiomatic in politics that "Perception is reality," Mr. Ossoff is in violation of principles he should know intuitively rather than have be told, "Thou shall not violate election laws" and "Thou shall not disgrace a lady."  It may be the lady involved is only on a romp with Mr. Ossoff as he is physically attractive and she may want something to examine in her off hours.  Where she is intelligent enough to make medical school one would think this would all be well sorted out and resolved with "...a ring and a date."  One wonders whether or not young Mr. Ossoff spent too much time with Hank Johnson.  Perhaps stupidity is a communicable affliction.

In the final analysis:  More Republican than Democrat votes were cast and 80% of these special elections have not resulted in a change of the party that held the seat.  We also see in Mr. Ossoff's flaws of the kind that become fatal in the long run.  Whether or not they appear and have effect before June 20, 2017 is a question, but the Democrats are eager to throw more millions at the Georgia Six fiasco.

Adrian Vance