This week, Jon Ossoff for the Democrats and Karen Handel for the Republicans faced each other in an electoral contest in what became the most expensive House of Representatives race in history. The candidates, their parties and super Political Action Committees (PACs) poured more than $50 million (\u00a339 million) combined into the effort to win a single House seat in the northern Atlanta suburbs of the state of Georgia (the state’s sixth congressional district).<\/p>\n
Of that sum, more than $40\u00a0million was spent on television and radio advertising alone, smashing past House election records. Just think how much good one could do for poor Americans in Atlanta with $50 million. This race just underlines that effectively there are no limits on expenditure in American political campaigns.\u00a0In the UK, political candidates and parties cannot buy broadcasting time.<\/p>\n
So who won?\u00a0It was a much closer race than the 20-plus percentage point wins typically posted by former Representative Tom Price whose departure to become Trump’s Health and Human Services Secretary created the vacancy.\u00a0Republican Handel\u00a0defeated Democrat Ossoff by just\u00a051.9% to 48.1%.<\/p>\n