Conservative media found a new angle of attack in the Georgia House race today.

Today in Conservative Media: A New Angle of Attack in the Georgia House Race

Today in Conservative Media: A New Angle of Attack in the Georgia House Race

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April 18 2017 5:31 PM

Today in Conservative Media: A New Angle of Attack in the Georgia House Race

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Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff speaks with the media.

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

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A daily roundup of the biggest stories in right-wing media.

On Monday and Tuesday, conservative media outlets turned their attention to the special election in Georgia for a Congressional seat formerly occupied by Tom Price. While Republicans have consistently held the district, Jon Ossoff, a young Democratic candidate, has been leading in the polls, thanks in large part to a pool of Republican contenders splitting the electorate. Unless Ossoff can pull in more than 50 percent of the vote, there will be a runoff election in June. Nevertheless, conservative publications found plenty of reasons to worry—and sought out new angles of attack against Ossoff.

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Cautiously concerned, National Review warned that it was difficult to predict what would happen, writing, “Given the many fluctuations in the available polling and the notoriously unreliable turnout that marks special elections, this one really could go either way.” On Fox News, Bret Baier offered some “perspective,” telling his audience, “Democrats are pouring a lot of money, effort, celebrities coming into this race. They’ve made this a race that is going to be some sort of referendum or a signal.”

The question of celebrities was a sticking point for others as well. Lloyd Marcus, who describes himself as “a black conservative,” was particularly upset about Samuel L. Jackson’s appearance in a radio spot for Ossoff. Marcus wrote:

By sticking his nose into the Georgia congressional election as a democrat hack operative, Mr. Jackson is selling-out his people again; helping to falsely brand Trump a racist. … Trump will be far better for blacks than Obama. Mr. Jackson, I pray that you will get your head together. Please stop being a puppet, continuing Democrats’ decades of deceiving and exploiting blacks to keep them locked into voting Democrat.

In an article from Monday about the election, Breitbart focused on the question of outside money, writing that Democrats have “raised more than $8.9 million from around the country.” (The article did not comment on conservative fundraising—including efforts led by Donald Trump himself.)

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But the primary line of attack today was about Ossoff himself not living in the district. “Neither Democrat Contender Nor Donors Live in Georgia District,” read a representative LifeZette headline on Tuesday. Embracing a similar line, the Daily Caller’s Jim Treacher snarked, “I haven’t paid much attention to today’s special election in Georgia’s 6th district, because I don’t live there and it’s none of my business,” before going on to point out that Ossoff wouldn’t be able to vote for himself.

Treacher linked to a CNN clip—posted to YouTube by the Alexandria, Virginia-based political action committee America Rising—in which Ossoff acknowledges that while he grew up in the district he’s been living with his girlfriend in a nearby neighborhood while she works on her medical degree:

Donald Trump must have been watching TV again, because he too picked up this line of attack:

Rush Limbaugh, who refers to Ossoff as “Pajama Boy,” said he was not “dedicating [himself] to the district here, and I think we all know why. The guy’s been plucked and chosen to win this seat.” Limbaugh then went on to observe that it was striking the Democrats had picked a white man for the seat, since he “doesn’t look like the ‘America’ that the Democrat Party wants you to think is the new America.”

Fox News, meanwhile warned that there was reason to worry about the “integrity” of the election itself. “Key electronic voter logs used in the Georgia special election to fill a vacant Congressional seat were swiped from the pickup truck of a poll worker during a grocery run,” the network reported. Citing the chairman of a local GOP branch, the outlet warned, “An E Poll book in the wrong hands could wreak havoc.”

On social media, feel good stories about the Boston Marathon spread widely from conservative Facebook pages: