Consider yourself lucky you aren’t spending this weekend in Georgia.
Our mailboxes are full of political mailings, mostly from Republicans. Our phones ring a dozen times a dat with robocalls. Our televisions have ad after ad, with one party’s ad following the other ad nauseam.
I don’t think Georgia has had this much time in the spotlight since the 2019 Super Bowl.
It’s all about the runoff. Actually, runoffs.
Sort of a perfect political storm.
— Georgia is one of only a few states that require winning candidates to win an actual majority — 50 percent plus one. Hence runoffs.
— Because one of our two senators resigned for health reasons late last year, both of our senate seats are being contested, and no one reached a majority in either race.
— Both our senators are Republicans, and the GOP needs at least one of the two to win to hold onto a majority and control the Senate. If both Democrats win it becomes 50-50 and they will control the Senate with the vice president as a tiebreaker.
If either incumbent senator were even adequate, it might be different. But Both David Perdue, first elected in 2014, and Kelly Loeffler, appointed 13 months ago, are essentially zeroes.
Corrupt zeroes.
Both made massive stock trades based on insider information about the coronavirus and saved themselves millions in losses. Perdue skipped a debate with his opponent, Jon Ossoff, because he wanted to avoid questions on that subject. Loeffler is no prize either. She owns the Atlanta team in the Women’s NBA, and every player on the roster has come out against her.
Loeffler also showed she is either disingenuous or uninformed when she was asked her opinion about Donald Trumps infamous Access Hollywood tape, saying she had never heard of it.
Can Democrats win both seats and flip the Senate? It would be a pleasant surprise. Democrats just don’t win runoff elections in the South. They traditionally don’t follow through as well as Republicans, and they usually have major disadvantages in fundraising.
But this year may be different. Democrats, led by Stacey Abrams, have put Herculean efforts into registering minorities and then making sure they vote. If I had to bet, I think Warnock has a 50-50 chance to beat Loeffler and give Democrats one of the two seats. Then I’d say Ossoff has maybe a 25 percent chance to beat Perdue.
My wife and I voted early, and I wish there was a way we could opt out of the rest of it.
Sadly, whoever wins between Warnock and Loeffler will be running again in 2022.
Maybe we can spend that year in Bora Bora.
A lot better than Boring Boring.