Yashar Ali was LOL’ing over this yesterday, and he won’t be alone in it. Both parties have turned on the money spigots in Georgia for the two Senate runoff elections, as expected. Democrats and Republicans are making hard pitches for cash, but one might think that past performance might impact donor spending decisions.
How many people want to hand over their hard-earned cash to someone who just lost a Senate race by twenty points, for instance?
Democrats from all over are pouring money into the Georgia Senate runoffs, which will determine control of the Senate.
Among them is Amy McGrath, the Democratic challenger who lost her Kentucky Senate race against Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. McGrath recently launched a super PAC in an attempt to mobilize her cadre of small donors and out-of-state fans to help Democrats flip the Senate.
Democratic Majority Action filed with the Federal Election Commission last Tuesday. In an email asking her supporters to donate to the committee, McGrath writes, “Our first mission is to continue to direct much-needed resources to Georgia—chip in what you can right now and all proceeds will go directly toward the work to elect Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock on January 5th.”
McGrath practically became the poster child for Democrats’ misbegotten spending in 2020. McGrath raised $88 million for her challenge to “Cocaine Mitch” McConnell in the 202o cycle, outraising the Senate Majority Leader by nearly $33 million — almost the exact amount raised by Ossoff overall in 2020, in fact. McGrath outspent McConnell by $30 million. The net result?
And now Democrats around the country can give McGrath even more of their money! Who’s next, Jaime Harrison doing a telethon? Donors might as well just set fire to their cash on the lawn. At least they’d get a few more moments of warmth out of that exercise.
Democrats do need the help, however. Republicans got off to a fast start after the November 3 election, and now have control of Georgia’s airwaves:
Republican Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue hold an early advantage over the airways in their two runoff races in Georgia that will determine the control of the Senate next year.
Political groups have already spent or reserved more than $126 million to advertise for the 63-day campaign, with Republicans exceeding Democrats $77.2 million to $49.3 million, according to Kantar’s Campaign Media Analysis Group. …
Outside groups on the Left are starting to ramp up their activity. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and the Senate Majority PAC, a Super PAC aligned with Schumer, are set to spend millions.
But they will be countered by other groups on the Right, including the Georgia Battleground Fund, a joint fundraising account formed by the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the GOP candidates, which recently named Republican strategist Karl Rove as its national finance chairman.
Republicans lead both overall and in the two races separately, but the latter matters less. This will be basically one election with two ballot choices. It’s basically one issue, too — who gets to control the Senate? With Joe Biden in the White House and Chuck Schumer promising to change Georgia and then change America, the GOP is betting that Georgians will tilt to the GOP. But they’re not leaving it to chance, either.
Neither should political donors, who should be asking themselves about what the stewards of these monies say about the parties and campaigns. Who’s a better steward … Karl Rove or Amy McGrath? That answer seems plainly obvious, which is why Republicans across the country will shortly be urging Democrats to send McGrath all their cash.
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