The Costly Stakes of Georgia's Special Election

The outcome of the special election in Georgia's 6th congressional district will change nothing in government. The balance of partisan power in Congress will be essentially the same regardless of which party prevails. The impact on public policy may well be nil. Yet by the time voters go to the polls on June 20, tens of millions of dollars will have been spent in a trench battle over this scrap of suburban Atlanta. A recent Democratic poll has the race in a statistical tie.

Democrat John Ossoff, a talented neophyte who won the April 18 open primary, raised an astonishing $8.3 million by March 31. Many millions continued flowing into his campaign after that filing deadline, though the campaign hasn't been required to make those donations public yet.