I've been following the race in Atlanta (loosely) since I heard a news item about it on NPR a while back.
If you're not familiar, it was a special election to fill a seat in the US House in a district in Atlanta. Elephant vs Donkey, don't you know.
Thanks to slick marketing, early on the media started calling it a referendum on Trump, and the media being the media, it stuck.
As it turns out, at least IMHO, it was a referendum on the gullibility of the American voter.
Some $55,000,000.00 was flushed down the toilet as money poured in from all over the country. At one point I heard that Californians were outspending Georgians by 8:1. Remember, this was to elect a representative to the house. From Atlanta, not Berkeley.
Aside from the horrid waste of money (it works out to almost $110,000 per DAY until the election in November 2018...not even a full term!!), I'm puzzled a bit.
Lots and lots of people are up-in-arms about the possibility that Russians interfered with our electoral process, hoping to influence an outcome favorable to Trump.
But apparently it's okay for non-Georgians to attempt to influence the outcome of an election where Atlantans are deciding who to send to Congress to represent THEIR interests.
Would these same people be okay if the Russians had simply pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into the campaign? I don't think so, it seems the idea of foreign influence is the thing that they're mostly squawking about. Again, though, they don't seem to be concerned with actual outside influence in a local election.
Personally I'd be greatly in favor of a federal law that would regulate or prohibit outside campaign contributions. If you want to be involved in Atlanta elections, move there. Otherwise, butt out.
Speaking of butts, let's all raise a glass to toast our "representatives."
If you're not familiar, it was a special election to fill a seat in the US House in a district in Atlanta. Elephant vs Donkey, don't you know.
Thanks to slick marketing, early on the media started calling it a referendum on Trump, and the media being the media, it stuck.
As it turns out, at least IMHO, it was a referendum on the gullibility of the American voter.
Some $55,000,000.00 was flushed down the toilet as money poured in from all over the country. At one point I heard that Californians were outspending Georgians by 8:1. Remember, this was to elect a representative to the house. From Atlanta, not Berkeley.
Aside from the horrid waste of money (it works out to almost $110,000 per DAY until the election in November 2018...not even a full term!!), I'm puzzled a bit.
Lots and lots of people are up-in-arms about the possibility that Russians interfered with our electoral process, hoping to influence an outcome favorable to Trump.
But apparently it's okay for non-Georgians to attempt to influence the outcome of an election where Atlantans are deciding who to send to Congress to represent THEIR interests.
Would these same people be okay if the Russians had simply pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into the campaign? I don't think so, it seems the idea of foreign influence is the thing that they're mostly squawking about. Again, though, they don't seem to be concerned with actual outside influence in a local election.
Personally I'd be greatly in favor of a federal law that would regulate or prohibit outside campaign contributions. If you want to be involved in Atlanta elections, move there. Otherwise, butt out.
Speaking of butts, let's all raise a glass to toast our "representatives."
