GOP battle as Democrat chases upset
ATLANTA — A Georgia special congressional campaign has become an internal conservative squabble, with a national conservative group blasting a Republican establishment favorite as a big-spending “career politician,” while other GOP hopefuls argue over who’s most loyal to President Donald Trump.
It’s enough to leave national Republicans nervous they could lose the traditionally conservative suburban Atlanta district where Trump underperformed, with any upset certain to embolden Democrats ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.
Former Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel was the initial GOP favorite among the 18 total candidates vying to replace Tom Price, who resigned to serve as Trump’s health secretary. Now Handel finds herself targeted with a six-figure attack ad from the conservative Club for Growth, which is casting her as just another big-spending politician.
Handel dismisses the broadsides — for example, that she spent $2 million “planting trees to beautify government properties” — as a warped view of budget votes while she was commission chairman for Fulton County, which includes nearly all of Atlanta. She points out that she shepherded balanced budgets without the property tax hike her Democratic colleagues wanted, adding: “The people of the 6th District know and what I’ve done.”
Washington-based Club for Growth has endorsed Handel’s rival Bob Gray. The wealthy technology executive models his pitch after Trump, pledging to be a “willing partner” for the billionaire president. In one TV spot, Gray dons hip waders and literally drains a swamp, a reference to Trump’s catchphrase. But Gray also is jousting with rivals who say he originally preferred Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for president.
“Lyin’ Bob,” quips Bruce LeVell, a jeweler who ran Trump’s national diversity coalition and regularly defended him on cable news. “There’s no one in this race that has a relationship with the president like Bruce LeVell,” says LeVell.
Meanwhile, all 11 Republican candidates are looking up at Jon Ossoff, a 30-year-old Democrat who has raised at least $8.3 million. The eye-popping figure affirms Ossoff as a focus of the disparate anti-Trump movement around the country. He’s also got an army of volunteers that even includes actress Alyssa Milano, who helped woo voters to early polling locations.
All 18 candidates from both parties will appear on one April 18 primary ballot, with polls suggesting that Ossoff will lead the first round of voting. Republicans are aiming to keep Ossoff below the majority required to win outright, forcing a two-person runoff — basically a Republican v. Democrat general election — on June 20.