Letter to the Editor: Richard Lapin

Letter to the editor,

I have not read the self-published book by Matt Lieberman. That said, the controversy over a work of fiction already in print for two years strikes me as a literary debate that is being politicized as part of a larger strategy.

The Senate seat held by Ms. Kelly Loeffler has 21 candidates from multiple parties running for it in November. I am told that this is called a “jungle primary.” What it means is that if one candidate does not receive 50 percent plus 1 vote, then the top two vote recipients advance to a January 2021 runoff. Given the number of candidates running, a runoff is all but assured.

Democrats have eight candidates who qualified with the Georgia secretary of state and will appear on the November ballot. In the last two U.S. Senate elections in Georgia in 2014 and 2016, Democrat voters accounted for 45 percent and 41 percent, respectively, of total votes cast. Even if Democrat voters accounted for 50 percent of the total vote, they would theoretically be splitting those votes among eight candidates. In other words, they are fragmenting their impact. As a practical matter, there are three leading Democrat candidates: Rev. Raphael Warnock, Mr. Lieberman, and former State Senator Ed Tarver. Using the book controversy to hasten Lieberman’s exit from the contest is simply a means of reducing the number of Democrat contenders, a job the party should have done back in February.

Rest assured that Republican voters will turn out for the Loeffler-[Doug] Collins donnybrook. It is reasonable to assume that those two candidates will be the top two vote-getters in the November election and thereby advance to the runoff. To me, it appears that the Georgia Democrat Party has squandered a once-in-a-generation opportunity to flip a Senate seat because it refused to think through the consequences of having so many candidates. In all likelihood, the Democrat contest will be a mere sideshow to the Loeffler-Collins contest.

Richard Lapin, Dunwoody