In the alternative universe of campaign flyers, Jon Ossoff works for terrorists, Joe Biden is coming for your guns and Republicans in the General Assembly are to blame for more than 7,000 COVID-19 deaths in Georgia.
Such claims rely heavily on partial truths, exaggeration and mischaracterization. But experts say they also can be effective, which is why Georgians can expect mailboxes stuffed with dubious claims in the final days of a hotly contested election.
“If you have the budget to do it in a big way, it can still have an effect, even if it’s completely wrong,” Kennesaw State University political scientist Kerwin Swint said. “Some people will believe it.”
What’s sometimes hard to believe is the sheer volume of campaign literature flooding Georgia mailboxes. For instance, two committees promoting the election of Republican state senators spent more than $1 million on mailers in recent weeks, state records show. And that’s a fraction of the total spent on campaign flyers.
The flyers are just one way that campaigns try to reach voters. Traditional methods such as television ads have been supplemented this year by a boom in political text messages. And social media plays a big role in many campaigns.
But flyers — the descendants of political pamphlets from previous eras — remain a staple of electoral politics. So do negative campaigning and misinformation.
Swint said maligning a political opponent can persuade voters to support a candidate or discourage them from supporting the opponent. Misinformation can be a sharp tool for campaigns looking to go negative, in part because they’re hard to rebut in a timely manner.
“It’s the art of the smear,” Swint said. “Flyers historically have been the best way to smear your opponent.”
A classic recent example: In the 2018 Republican primary for lieutenant government, a “dark money” funded campaign committee targeted David Shafer as “shady” and claimed he had used his political position to get rich and to shut down a sexual harassment investigation against him. Rival Geoff Duncan went on to win the primary and the general election.
Dubious claims also are popping up this election year. Take Republican claims that Ossoff, a Democratic U.S. Senate candidate, has ties to Middle Eastern terrorists. “Ossoff’s ties to terrorism are … SCARY,” proclaims a flyer mailed by the Washington-based Senate Leadership Fund.
Ossoff manages a documentary film company that has produced films broadcast on a variety of television networks around the world, including Al-Jazeera, a Qatar-based news network. The films have exposed problems such as atrocities committed by peacekeepers in Sierra Leone and sex slavery within the terrorist group ISIS.
Al-Jazeera’s critics say it has fanned anti-American sentiments by, among other things, broadcasting the statements of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. And the network accepts money from the government of Qatar, which has been linked to financing terrorist groups.
The claims that Ossoff has accepted money from an organization that supports terrorism surfaced in 2017, during his run for the 6th District U.S. House seat. Fact-checkers found the claim to be mostly false.
“This is a case when a series of partial truths are strung together to promote the worst possible conclusion,” PolitFact reported in 2017.
That hasn’t stopped Republicans from reviving the claim during Ossoff’s campaign against incumbent U.S. Sen. David Perdue. A spokesperson for the Senate Leadership Fund stuck by the claim in a recent email to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“Instead of complaining about being held accountable, perhaps Ossoff shouldn’t have taken their money in the first place,” the spokesperson said.
In other recent flyers, the Georgia Republican Party claims Biden, the Democratic presidential candidate, and vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris want to “take away” or “confiscate” guns. Fact-checkers also have found this claim false.
Biden has called for a ban on the sale of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, and he has proposed a voluntary buyback of such weapons. But he has not proposed taking away weapons from anyone who already has them.
Georgia Republican Party Executive Director Stewart Bragg stood by the flyer in a statement to the AJC. He cited Biden’s criticism of a 2008 Supreme Court decision that held the Second Amendment protects an individual right to posses a firearm unconnected with service in a militia. He also cited Harris' argument in a court brief in that case that the Second Amendment does not protect an individual’s right to bear arms.
Democrats also have made questionable claims, Swint said. He cited Ossoff’s accusations that Perdue leveraged insider information to profit from the coronavirus pandemic by buying and selling certain stocks. Perdue says the transactions were handled by advisers without his input, and he says he’s been cleared of wrongdoing by the Senate Ethics Committee and federal investigators.
“They’re both doing it,” Swint said. “They both have the budgets to do it in a big way, which is why I’m noticing it.”
A Democratic flyer targeting Republicans in the General Assembly suggests they’re responsible for more than 7,000 COVID-19 deaths in the state. As evidence, the flyer cites the Republicans' support for a new law that shields businesses and health care providers from COVID-19-related lawsuits if they follow certain safety protocols. Some Democrats also voted for the measure, although most didn’t.
The flyer also accused Republicans of “rushing to fully reopen” the state amid the pandemic. The reopening was approved by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp. The General Assembly was not in session at the time.
“With over 7,000 Georgians dead from coronavirus, we need legislators who listen to nurses, doctors and scientists,” the flyer says.
Maggie Chambers, a spokesperson for the Democratic Party of Georgia, stuck by the claim, making a broader case for Republican responsibility for the deaths than the one made in the flyer.
She cited Kemp’s refusal to impose a statewide mask requirement and the party’s opposition to a full Medicaid expansion.
“We do have over 7,000 Georgians who have died because of the pandemic,” Chambers said. “We know that it is in no small part because of a decade of failed Republican leadership in this state.”
Dror Walter, a Georgia State University professor who has studied misinformation, said negative or clearly false messages can backfire on campaigns, portraying them in an unflattering light.
But they can also be effective. Walter cited a 2016 study that found misinformation shapes political attitudes even after it’s been effectively discredited.
“The lesson here is kind of awful but true,” Walter said. “Misinformation works, even when it’s debunked.”
Swint agreed. And with Georgia a hotly contested swing state — and with money flooding into campaigns for federal and state office — he said Georgia residents can expect more dubious claims in coming days.
“A lot of (political) consultants will use it, whether they think it’s effective or not,” Swint said. “They’ll just throw it up against the wall and see what sticks.”
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