April 5, 2017

Here’s How Badly Republicans Are Freaking Out About That Georgia Special Election

Oof.


A new poll has Democrat Jon Ossoff at 43 percent—seven points below the threshold to win outright and avoid a runoff—in the special election for the House seat vacated by Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price. The district, which was once represented by Newt Gingrich, has been solidly Republican for decades but was nearly carried by Hillary Clinton in November (Price faced only token opposition). Ossoff, for his part, has raised $4 million thanks to a newly mobilized Democratic base. It is the kind of affluent suburban district that Democrats will need to win to take back the House in 2018, and although Republicans have publicly expressed confidence in their candidates, their actions betray their fears about a Democratic resurgence.

The Congressional Leadership Fund, a super-PAC affiliated with the House Republican leaders, announced last month that it was spending an extra $2.2 million against Ossoff. That was on top of an earlier $1.1 million investment attacking the Democrat for—seriously—dressing up as Han Solo in college. Their latest spot, apparently ripped from the front pages of the New York Post circa 2002, slams Ossoff for producing a documentary for the Qatari-own Al Jazeera:

Did Jon Ossoff do 9/11? It’s an open question.

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

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