Prepare to be assaulted by fake news political commercials

With this being an election year, we must prepare ourselves to have our senses assaulted with idiotic campaign commercials for the next 10 months or so. We know from painful experience that most of them are going to be silly and devoid of useful content, but I saw one this past week that left me scratching my head.

If you’ve been watching TV recently you probably saw the one I’m talking about. It’s a hit piece on U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, who is running for the Senate seat vacated last year by Johnny Isakson due to health concerns. What’s odd about this particular attack ad is that it attempts to paint Collins (who is known as a conservative and loyal Trump supporter) as a free-spending liberal who has a cozy relationship with Nancy Pelosi.

I admit I was a little confused as to who would be attacking a Republican in good standing in this unexpected fashion. It certainly didn’t look like the work of those godless liberals, so what gives?

Well, it’s complicated, and to understand how we got to this point you have to go back to last year when Isakson announced his retirement and Gov. Brian Kemp was tasked with choosing his temporary fill-in to man the position until the next scheduled election. Doug Collins was widely considered to be Kemp’s likely choice as he had the vocal support of President Trump, so it seemed like a slam dunk.

But Gov. Kemp had other ideas. Mindful of the fact that his party is slowly losing ground to Democrats in our state, he decided that a far-right Trump loyalist might not be his best option. Instead he surprised many by tapping a political newcomer, businesswoman Kelly Loffler, to represent us in Washington. Kemp apparently believed that a woman who had a reputation for being politically moderate might garner a few votes from Georgians who might be turned off by Trump yes-man like Collins.

The seat will be up for grabs in November and it will be a “jungle” special election, which means that it is non-partisan and anyone can run. Collins decided to throw his hat in the ring, and that’s caused more than a little concern among state Republicans about the possibility of splitting the vote between two well-known Republican candidates, which might help Democrats’ chances of swinging the seat their way.

So there’s a bit of a civil war going on amongst state Republicans, and the attack ad painting Collins as a Pelosi-hugging liberal is an attempt by forces loyal to Kemp and Loeffler to beat back his challenge. Loeffler also has a substantial personal fortune to draw from to aid in her defense of the seat, a factor that no doubt played into Kemp’s decision to give her the nod in the first place.

Of course, Collins has a potential ace-in-the-hole for his chances of winning if he could get Trump to openly endorse him. So far the Tangerine Tornado has not inserted himself into the state contest, but we all know he is subject to saying anything at any time. The situation could change quickly if he decides to express a preference for either candidate.

If no one wins a majority of votes in the race (which seems likely) there will be a runoff between the top two finishers. Collins presence on the ballot would seem to give the Democrats a good shot at placing someone in the top two if they can unite behind a candidate.

Right now it looks as if the top Democrat in the race will be the Rev. Ralph Warnock, the well-known pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. Since entering the race he’s picked up some crucial endorsements, including a big one from Kemp’s rival in the 2018 governor’s race Stacey Abrams.

There’s a lot of drama in this race and it promises to be an entertaining undercard match in the November election. Democracy isn’t pretty sometimes, but it certainly isn’t boring is it?

Bill Ferguson is a resident of Warner Robins. Readers can write him at fergcolumn@hotmail.com.