ATLANTA -- Another week marks another round of claims between 6th Congressional District candidates Karen Handel and Jon Ossoff.
11Alive's Matt Pearl is verifying a claim by Handel's team about Ossoff's plan to cut wasteful spending.
The 6th District ads released in the past week have focused much on what Jon Ossoff would do as a member of the House.
His Republican opponent, Karen Handel, has put out ads attacking Ossoff. The Democrat himself has offered a plan to cut wasteful spending in Washington.
Here is his ad:
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The claims all check out, but the Handel camp took issue with one line that did not make the ad, but is on Ossoff's website:
"Expand joint basing at Department of Defense and save $2.3 billion."
Joint basing is the consolidation of two military bases into one.
In one sense, Ossoff's claim does not move the needle too much. $2.3 billion makes up 0.06 of the overall federal budget -- but it drew negative comments from the NRCC and this claim from Team Handel:
"The 'wasteful' spending ... could mean the loss of 26,000 Georgia jobs."
Why would that happen? Because that's how many jobs exist at Georgia National Guard and Dobbins Air Reserve Base. If those bases closed, those jobs would be gone.
However, we cannot find any evidence that anything like that would happen -- and it has nothing to do with what Ossoff is referencing in his plan.
Now, the Ossoff camp did change the language on the website, from 'expand joint basing' to 'improve existing joint basing.'
A spokesperson insists it was just a copy error, and that's backed up by how the dollar amount in question does not change. It's still $2.3 billion; it still refers to a report from the Government Accountability Office about joint bases that already exist -- none of which are in Georgia.
An office spokesperson confirms the $2.3 billion does not involve any more bases closing, just better oversight at the current joint bases.
Pearl talked with a Handel spokesperson about this. She sent a statement calling Ossoff's change of language on the website a 'flip-flop.' But the fact is, there's no evidence that Dobbins or Georgia National Guard are in any danger -- and they have nothing to do with the $2.3 billion being discussed here.
Therefore, we are going to Verify that this claim from Karen Handel is FALSE.
SOURCES:
3. Conversation between Karen Handel spokesperson and 11Alive's Matt Pearl
