So why should Californians care about a runoff election for two U.S. Senate seats in Georgia occurring Jan. 5? The answer is simple. The outcome of that election will have major implications for national politics and that includes profound impacts on California. Unlike Las Vegas, what happens in Georgia will not stay in Georgia.
It is rare that two Senate seats are up for grabs in a single state simultaneously. And because the outcome will determine control of the U.S. Senate, it has focused the political attention of the entire nation on the Peach State. In one of the races, Republican Kelly Loeffler will be facing Democrat Raphael Warnock to retain the seat to which she was appointed by Gov. Brian Kemp. In the other, Republican incumbent David Perdue will be up against Jon Ossoff, a wealthy Democrat who failed to win a seat in the House of Representatives in a 2017 special election after spending millions of dollars in the most expensive congressional race in American history.
Currently, the United States Senate is under Republican control with a 50-48 advantage. If Loeffler and Perdue win, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will retain the gavel with a 52-48 majority. If just one wins, the Republicans will still control assuming no defections on major issues. However, if the two Democrats win, the Senate will be at a 50-50 tie with the newly elected Vice President Kamala Harris casting the deciding votes.
If the latter occurs, Democrats would be in complete control of Washington, ruling both chambers of Congress and the White House. For California, that would mean some major changes that progressives would likely celebrate.
First, Democrats could very well bail out those states that have shown no spending discipline. California, New York and Illinois are high on that list because their pension costs are out of control.
Progressives could also force through major labor legislation that limits opportunities for freelance work and grants new powers to unions that could effectively undercut “right to work” laws in many states. Public sector unions would see their political wishes granted.
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