What is love? Well for Jon Ossoff, it’s the reason he can’t vote for himself in a special and critical House election.
Running in a jungle primary against 17 other candidates, the 30-year-old Democrat is trying to capture the Republican stronghold in Georgia’s Sixth Congressional District. But he doesn’t live there. Ossoff lives 10 minutes away so his longtime girlfriend can literally walk to class.
“I’m a mile and a half down the street to support Alicia while she finishes medical school,” Ossoff explained on CNN this morning. That means making sure that she spends more time studying that commuting to Emory University’s School of Medicine.
But while an embarrassing admission, it’s not a technically disqualifying one. Perhaps thinking of this exact situation when they drafted Article I Section 2 of the Constitution, the Founders only made state residency a requirement for House representatives.
And Ossoff wouldn’t be the first to exploit this loophole. Plenty of politicians have had interesting living arrangements. Trey Hollingsworth, for instance, lived simultaneously in 5 states before becoming Indiana’s 9th Congressional District. That Republican was legally obligated to do it for business. Ossoff’s doing it for love.
Maybe that sounds romantic and all, but it’s a rookie gaffe for the political Romeo.
Democrats have made the race their bellwether. If they can put a fresh-faced Democrat in the seat once occupied by Speaker Newt Gingrich, the thinking goes, maybe they’ve got a shot at retaking the House in 2018. On short notice, Democrats pulled off an impressive feat of political mobilization. They raised millions, flooded the airwaves, and rallied a real grassroots army. But Ossoff didn’t even bother to move.
If the sappy Democrat wants to be a member of Congress, though, that needs to change. Chances are good that Ossoff won’t win 50 percent of the vote tonight, giving him just enough time to switch his address before a June 20th runoff election. That doesn’t mean the yuppie liberal couple can’t have it all, though.
The new District 6 living situation could work. To help fulfill his campaign promise of making Atlanta “the Silicon Valley of the South,” Ossoff could call his girlfriend an Uber every morning. If that’s too expensive, she could use community transit options like the bus. And if all else fails, there’s always the heart-healthy option of a longer walk.
But public service requires personal sacrifice and Ossoff and his Venus need to pick one.
Philip Wegmann is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
