Fact checks: Georgia's 6th Congressional District special election, 2017
Georgia's 6th Congressional District held a runoff election for the U.S. House of Representatives on June 20, 2017.
Jon Ossoff (D) and Karen Handel (R) advanced to the runoff election after receiving 48.1 percent and 19.8 percent in the April 18, 2017 special election, respectively.[1]
Ballotpedia has fact-checked the following claims involving candidates in the runoff election for Georgia's 6th Congressional District.
Is Jon Ossoff a small business owner?
Jon Ossoff's campaign website describes him as "a small business owner, executive, and entrepreneur — the CEO of a company that produces documentaries investigating organized crime and political corruption." Political opponents including a senior contributing editor for the conservative blog RedState and America Rising PAC questioned his business experience. Thomas Jonathan Ossoff is registered with the United Kingdom government as the managing director of Insight TWI Ltd., a London-based documentary film company. Documents filed with Companies House, the UK government agency, indicate that he owned 50 percent of the company shares as of September 16, 2016. Insight TWI Ltd. qualifies as a small business under UK law, according to Companies House documents.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]
Did Karen Handel reduce the Georgia secretary of state's budget by 20 percent?
A fundraising flyer from the Value in Electing Women political action committee (VIEWPAC) claimed that as Georgia’s secretary of state, “Karen reduced the department’s budget by nearly 20% by prioritizing programs, streamlining processes and eliminating waste and duplication.” Did Handel reduce the secretary of state’s budget by nearly 20 percent? The department's budget request for fiscal year (FY) 2011 was 19.9 percent less than the amount requested for the department's amended FY 2008 budget (the period in which Handel was involved). The approved budgets decreased by 19.8 percent in that period. Nearly 7 percent of that budget reduction resulted from across-the-board cuts imposed by the state legislature — some initiated in response to the financial crisis.[9][10][11]
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Footnotes
- ↑ Georgia Secretary of State, "April 18, 2017 Special Election, Results," accessed June 7, 2017
- ↑ Jon Ossoff 2017 campaign website, "Priorities," accessed April 24, 2017
- ↑ RedState, "Georgia Special Election Is Not Going The Way The Democrats Had Hoped," April 13, 2017
- ↑ Twitter, "streiff," accessed May 3, 2017
- ↑ America Rising, "Jon Ossoff Clearly Isn’t A Small Business Owner," accessed April 24, 2017
- ↑ Companies House, "Confirmation Statement," November 30, 2016
- ↑ Companies House, "Abbreviated Accounts," September 30, 2016
- ↑ Legislation.gov.uk, "Companies Act 2006, Part 15, Chapter 1, Section 382," accessed April 25, 2017
- ↑ VIEWPAC, “VIEWPAC Invites you to Meet, Greet, and Contribute to Karen Handel,” accessed April 5, 2017
- ↑ Governor's Office of Planning and Budget, "Governor's Budget Report Documents," accessed May 12, 2017 (Amended FY 2008, FY 2009, Amended FY 2009, FY 2010, and FY 2011)
- ↑ Governor's Office of Planning and Budget, "Budget in Brief Documents," accessed May 12, 2017 (FY 2009 - AFY 2008, FY 2010 - AFY 2009, and FY 2011 - AFY 2010)
