Democrats Start Squealing

A political organization controlled by Stacey Abrams donated $1.34 million to pay off the medical debts of 68,000 Georgians. Here’s how NPR covered it:

The Fair Fight Political Action Committee on Wednesday told The Associated Press it has donated $1.34 million from its political action committee to the nonprofit organization RIP Medical Debt to wipe out debt with a face value of $212 million that is owed by 108,000 people in Georgia, Arizona, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

Abrams now features it prominently on her website and has run ads highlighting her work. It was a predictable campaign stunt. She pays off the debt and then runs ads about it both taking credit for a good deed and using it to highlight a desire for Obamacare expansion.

Republicans said very little and did not make much of a fuss. It was smart politics. Contrast that with the Democrats now. A pro-Herschel Walker super PAC in Georgia started giving away $25.00 vouchers for gas. Democrats are squealing and spitting mad about it.

“This is illegal,” declared LaTosha Brown, a cofounder of Black Voters Matter.

“Meanwhile, also in Georgia, giving out water to those waiting to cast a ballot is considered illegal voter influence,” said state Sen. Michelle Au, a Johns Creek Democrat.…

[S]everal influential Democrats argued that the PAC’s move could have violated Georgia law that states: “Any person who gives or receives, offers to give or receive, or participates in the giving or receiving of money or gifts for the purpose of registering as a voter, voting, or voting for a particular candidate in any primary or election shall be guilty of a felony.”

Among them was state Rep. Bee Nguyen, a Democratic candidate for secretary of state who recalled how the office of Georgia’s top election official sent an investigator to a metro Atlanta precinct in 2020 “with firearm on hip and demanded all food and water to be removed.”

Actually, because the vouchers are given away without regard to someone’s voter registration status, they no more break the law than Stacey Abrams paying people’s medical bills.

Most legal scholars agree it is legal and the PAC has a legal opinion on it as well. Georgia law, with which I am most familiar as a former Georgia elections attorney, should permit it because the vouchers were not an inducement for a vote or an attempt to register a voter. Rather, they were to highlight incumbent Democrat Senator Raphael Warnock’s unwillingness to do anything about gas prices except encourage people to get into electric vehicles.

That’s a disastrous policy. If you missed it, a Wall Street Journal reporter rented an electric car for a four day road trip between New Orleans, LA and Chicago, IL. It did not go well. The nation is not ready for electric cars; they are not priced for lower and middle-income voters; and we do not have a sufficient power grid for them.

Warnock and the Democrats screaming about the GOP stunt is an indication they know just how vulnerable Warnock and all the other Democrats are to the pain being felt at the pump. Georgia has some of the lowest gas prices in the country now only because Governor Brian Kemp suspended the state’s gas tax. That suspension can only last so long and Democrats are going to get the blame.

The only response they have is to squeal like stuck pigs. The GOP wave is going to be big. Herschel Walker is one of the weaker GOP candidates in the field and he stands a really strong chance of winning the race in Georgia because of voter contempt for the Democrats.