(Sen. David Perdue Ad)
By Jim Ellis
Dec. 9, 2020 — We are over halfway into the Georgia US Senate runoff campaigns that will decide the national legislative body’s majority and it is clear that political prime time will determine the winners. Election Day is now less than a month away and the start of early voting begins next Monday, Dec. 14.
Setting the political table, the Republicans have a slight advantage coming from both Nov. 3 elections. GOP Sen. David Perdue (see ad above) placed ahead of Democrat Jon Ossoff (see ad below) by 88,098 votes but came up a quarter of a percentage point shy of obtaining the majority support necessary to win. In the 20-candidate field for the special election, when adding all of the Republican candidates and comparing that tabulation to the Democratic aggregate, we see the GOP holding a 47,808 vote edge.
(Jon Ossoff Ad)
The combined Georgia Senate runoff elections are sure to set a spending record once the campaigns end on January 5th. Already, according to the AdImpact marketing organization, as the Daily Kos Election site and Bloomberg Government reports, over $300 million has been spent since the beginning of these runoff campaigns.
(Raphael Warnock Ad)
A total of $170 million has been expended in the special election campaign, for example. Between the two candidates, Democrat Rev. Raphael Warnock (see ad above) has outspent Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler (see ad below), $60 million to $45 million, but outside groups supporting the appointed incumbent have more than made up the difference, outlaying $53 million as compared to $13 million from left-of-center organizations.
https://youtu.be/_BylA3URYEo(Sen. Kelly Loeffler Ad)
Democrats have run approximately 42,000 commercials as compared to the Republicans’ 33,500 during the runoff period even though the latter party and its allies have spent more. Because the right-of-center organizations have dominated the non-candidate spending, and the cost to run such ads is greater than for an individual candidate’s committee, the monetary imbalance is thus explained.
Polling predictably shows a close race with virtually every study finding all four contenders within the polling margin of error, as a listing of the latest post-November 3rd election surveys reveal:
Senate – A
Trafalgar Group (Dec. 1-3; 1,083 likely voters)
| • Jon Ossoff (D) | 48% |
| • Sen. David Perdue (R) | 47% |
Survey USA (Nov. 27-30; 583 likely voters)
| • Jon Ossoff (D) | 50% |
| • Sen. David Perdue (R) | 48% |
RMG Research (Nov. 19-24; 1,377 likely voters)
| • Jon Ossoff (D) | 48% |
| • Sen. David Perdue (R) | 47% |
Insider Advantage (Nov. 16; 800 likely voters)
| • Jon Ossoff (D) | 49% |
| • Sen. David Perdue (R) | 49% |
Remington Research Group (Nov. 8-9; 1,450 likely voters)
| • Sen. David Perdue (R) | 50% |
| • Jon Ossoff (D) | 46% |
Senate – B – Special Election
Trafalgar Group (Dec. 1-3; 1,083 likely voters)
| • Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R) | 50% |
| • Raphael Warnock (D) | 45% |
Survey USA (Nov. 27-30; 583 likely voters)
| • Raphael Warnock (D) | 52% |
| • Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R) | 45% |
RMG Research (Nov. 19-24; 1,377 likely voters)
| • Raphael Warnock (D) | 48% |
| • Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R) | 46% |
Insider Advantage (Nov. 16; 800 likely voters)
| • Raphael Warnock (D) | 49% |
| • Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R) | 48% |
V-Creek/AMG (Nov. 10; 300 likely voters)
| • Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R) | 50% |
| • Raphael Warnock (D) | 46% |
Remington Research Group (Nov. 8-9; 1,450 likely voters)
| • Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R) | 49% |
| • Raphael Warnock (D) | 48% |
The campaign messages are also well defined. Sen. Perdue continues to emphasize the national negative themes that appeared to work well for the GOP in the down ballot races: socialism, defunding the police, packing the US Supreme Court, raising taxes, and illegal immigrant voting.
Ossoff has been concentrating his ad messages on COVID and what he claims are Perdue and President Trump’s failures in handling the issue. His latest ad linked below features film of former President Barack Obama at a rally for the Democratic candidate, along with Ossoff’s wife, Dr. Alisha Kramer, who is a physician.
Turning to the special election, the Loeffler and Warnock campaigns have been trading attacks, counterattacks, and defensive messages.
Rev. Warnock hits Sen. Loeffler on her controversial stock transactions, while she responds with an aggressive hit about him being an extremist who calls the police “thugs” and once invited Fidel Castro to speak at a church where Rev. Warnock was an assistant pastor. Warnock responds with the linked ad that shows him walking his dog and disposes of the animal’s excrement in a reference to characterizing the Loeffler attacks.
In the end, the races will come down to which side can better deliver its base votes to the polls. Turnout will be robust but certainly well under the 4.952 million people who originally voted in the Perdue-Ossoff campaign, the larger turnout figure from the two Senate contests.
At this point, the races’ conclusion is uncertain, but Republicans should still have at least a slight advantage heading into early voting period and the election itself. Such a premise is based upon past voting history even in this politically changing state, and the original vote margins recorded on Nov. 3.
