Georgia on their mind
The congressional race that California lost
In any other political moment, Republican Karen Handel’s victory over Jon Ossoff, a young Democrat, for a U.S. House seat from Georgia would be no big deal. The suburban Atlanta district has sent Republicans to Congress since the 1978 election of Newt Gingrich. Ms. Handel, 55, is an established political figure who has served as Georgia’s secretary of state and a county commissioner. Mr. Ossoff, 30, is a former Capitol Hill staffer who has never held elected office. Yet Tuesday’s special election to fill the seat vacated by Tom Price, secretary of health and human services, became the most expensive House race in U.S. history. Some people in California had a lot to do with that.
Mr. Ossoff received nearly nine times as many individual donations from California as from Georgia, with the San Francisco Bay Area alone matching the total from the Peach State. These individual donations from progressives were pumped up by Democratic Party national machinery, which pitched the election as a referendum on President Donald Trump. In the November election, Mr. Trump narrowly prevailed over Hillary Clinton in the district, and Democrats sensed an opening. The funding arms race escalated. Total spending reached $50 million, with outside groups from both parties fueling message ads. Mr. Ossoff’s campaign pulled in $23 million. The most influential Californian in his rise was Nancy Pelosi, the House minority leader — who, in the end, did more harm than good.
Former House Speaker Tip O’Neill popularized the idea that “all politics is local,” though Pericles might have said the same in ancient Greece. Not all voters of Georgia’s 6th Congressional District may have felt like they were participating in a referendum on the Trump presidency — they were voting in a local election for Congress and went with the candidate who would represent them best. But to the extent that it was a referendum, Mr. Trump won, and California lost.
With Ms. Pelosi orchestrating such a windfall for her candidate, it became easy to characterize Mr. Ossoff as her puppet — which many campaign ads literally did. It might also have helped if Mr. Ossoff actually resided in the district (while he grew up within its borders, he now lives nearby in the Atlanta area, convenient to his financee’s medical school).
Following the disaster of Ms. Clinton’s loss in November, Ms. Pelosi faced a stiff challenge for her leadership role from Rep. Tim Ryan, a solid politician from the Youngstown, Ohio, area. She cut enough deals to remain in the position. Democratic power brokers, including Rep. Mike Doyle, should use the failed Ossoff gamble as an opportunity to challenge her sway over the party. The mood of the nation is not exactly with a well-burnished liberal from San Francisco who has held the safest Democratic seat in the nation since 1987. And while Americans may appreciate the entertainment products and fermented grapes that emerge from California, the self-sustaining state has become a political outlier, an entity unlike any other part of America politically.
As analysts pore over the meaning of Tuesday’s special election in Georgia, they might realize it wasn’t so special. Big money flowing into elections across the nation is an accepted reality. Yet no voter likes the idea of recognizable outside forces trying to influence their choice — particularly Hollywood celebrities and Silicon Valley sages. The takeaway for the next hot-button election could be: Keep California at bay.