Tuesday, July 21, 2020

From the Politics Desk


Kelly Loeffler, the wealthiest member of the U.S. Senate (which, remember, still includes Mitt Romney), can't catch a break.

Loeffler was appointed by laughing-stock governor Brian Kemp to fill the Senate seat vacated by Johnny Isakson until November's general election.  Since there will be no primary, multiple candidates from each party, Democrat and Republican, will be on the ballot opposing her.  Candidates from the Libertarian and Green parties as well.  And since she's now the incumbent due to Kemp's appointment, they're all aiming their guns and taking shots at her. 

The Democrats are campaigning hard against her mainly on the basis of allegations of insider trading, as well as her down-the-line record of taking the Trump/Republican position in every Senate vote.  

Her Republican opponents aren't missing the opportunity to criticize her for insider trading either, but they're also using her past support of Planned Parenthood and previous donations to Democratic candidates against her too.  

Just about every pundit and pollster is predicting a Republican victory, but under Georgia's rules, if no candidate in the election gets over 50% of the vote, a runoff election will be held before January 1 between the top two finishers.  With at least three candidates splitting the Democratic vote, it would not be surprising if the two leading candidates aren't Loeffler and Rep. Doug Collins, her Republican rival and Donald Trump's preferred candidate.  Picking between those two candidates in the run-off would be a hard choice for a Democratic voter ("the evil of two lessers").

Loeffler's a part owner of the Atlanta Dream WNBA team, and they're protesting her efforts to silence the League's support of the Black Lives Matter movement.   So on top of all her electoral rivals, she's got former players and members of the WNBA Players Association calling for her removal from the league.  Loeffler's anagement of the team has been compared to plantation ownership, or as Laura Ingraham would have it, "Shut up and dribble."

So our richer-than-Romney, Buckhead-Barbie white girl is facing adversity on all fronts.  We at the WDW politics desk couldn't be happier

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