Republican Karen Handel's campaign seized on changes Wednesday to Democrat Jon Ossoff's website involving his plan to slash "wasteful" spending by the Pentagon by using more military bases that can be used by multiple branches of the armed services.
Ossoff's website had included a pledge to "expand joint basing" at the Department of Defense to save $2.3 billion as part of broader cost-cutting measures. It was later changed to a term found in a Government Accountability Office report: "improve existing joint basing."
Any effort to expand joint-basing in Georgia is a hot-button debate, and politicians and business leaders constantly worry that a new round of consolidations could close one of the state’s military bases.
A 2005 Defense Department report on the $2.3 billion in cuts listed 13 military installations that could be turned into joint-bases; none are in Georgia.
Ossoff’s campaign called the changes a “copy error” and that they were fixed as soon as it was discovered. The same wording also appeared in an Ossoff press release earlier this month. Handel’s campaign said the revisions undercut his claims of having expertise in national security, describing them as a “flip-flop.”
“It’s time he is finally held accountable and forced to answer for his ever-changing positions,” said Handel spokeswoman Kate Constantini.
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