Democrats revived an all-out TV blitz on Thursday for Jon Ossoff's bid for Congress with the launch of a wave of attack ads on Republican Karen Handel after a brief post-election pause.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee put $450,000 behind an ad that slams Handel as “just another career politician” and questioned her use of public funds while she was Georgia’s secretary of state.
And Ossoff's campaign, restocked with more than $500,000 in donations after Tuesday's vote, also said it will resume a barrage of ads propping up the former congressional aide on Thursday.
The commercial, combined with an anti-Ossoff ad Wednesday from a GOP group, are a sign of what's to come. The more than $14 million spent on ads ahead of Tuesday's special election is just the beginning of a proxy fight between national Republicans and Democrats in what could be the most expensive special election on record.
The DCCC ad hits some of the same themes that Club for Growth and other conservative critics used to slam Handel in the first round of the vote. They deride her as a political wannabe and claimed she used “our tax dollars to pay for her luxury SUV then jetted around on our dime.”
The ad ends thusly: “Karen Handel, living the high life. She’d fit right in in Washington.”
The SUV hit is a familiar one for Handel; it also came up in the Senate race. As secretary of state, she often drove herself in a Lexus SUV rather than take a state car, and was reimbursed about $580 a month. Her campaign has said she owned the car before she won statewide office.
DCCC spokeswoman Meredith Kelly said the ad will help Ossoff stay on the offensive - and that there's more in the works against a candidate "best known for two things: losing repeatedly and living high on the taxpayer dime."
Watch the ad below, and get ready for even more TV spots:
About the Author
