THE SPECIAL ELECTION: RESULTS

The votes are in for the special election to decide who will represent Georgia’s 6th district.

As expected (at least by me, though I didn’t think he’d come this close) Jon Ossoff did not get 50% of the vote – he wound up with 48% – thus there will be a runoff on June 20th between him and the #2 finisher, Republican Karen Handel.

The Today show presented this as some kind of great victory for Democrats.  Honest, it really did.

Today’s designated Democrat propagandist, Kristen Welker, characterized “reported” that:

-“The White House (is) breathing a sigh of relief this morning”,

-“Ossoff got awfully close, enough to have the political world asking ‘could Georgia become a referendum on President Trump?'”, and

-It was “A big night in Georgia for political upstart Democrat Jon Ossoff” – supplemented with footage of cheering crowds, then a still of Ossoff with a broad smile – the kind you expect for a victory, not a holding pattern.

By contrast, Gabriel Debenedetti – formerly of Reuters, currently at politico.com – wrote an intelligent, logical, realistic assessment of the election results.  Here are the first few paragraphs:

As it became clear late Tuesday evening that Jon Ossoff would fall just short ofthe 50-percent mark in the first round of voting in a suburban Atlanta special election, Democrats back in Washington started leafing through their calendars and asking: When does the winning start?

Ossoff’s moral victory — capturing 48 percent of the vote in a conservative-oriented district — was welcome, but after two successive close-but-no-cigar finishes in House special elections in Georgia and Kansas, a new worry is beginning to set in. 

For all the anger, energy, and money swirling at the grassroots level, Democrats didn’t manage to pick off the first two Republican-held congressional seats they contended for in the Trump era, and the prospects aren’t markedly better in the next few House races coming up: the Montana race at the end of May, and the South Carolina contest on June 20.

That is markedly different from Kristen Welker’s cheerleading, wouldn’t you say?

In any event, it will be Ossoff vs. Handel on June 20th – which by coincidence, happens to be the last day of spring.  Maybe the change of seasons will do Mr. Ossoff some good.

Not as much, I suspect, as the ton of additional money Democrats across the country are likely to fill his pockets with (95% of Ossoff’s  contributions came from outside the district) and the enthusiastic support of Hollywood (move over mumia, abu jamal, there’s a new hero in town).

Stay tuned.