So yesterday afternoon I decided to go through the FEC filings for Jon Ossoff, the Democratic candidate in Georgia who on Tuesday managed to lose his House race despite spending $30 million. I figured there’d be some interesting information on where all his money went and sure enough there was.
I was going to write a story that minute but I decided to go for a walk instead and write it in the morning, but when I got back home I saw that the Washington Free Beacon had already done more or less what I’d planned. It was super-annoying to put it mildly. I decided to write a story anyway because the odds are that none of you saw that one.
So the story is about Mothership Strategies, a “progressive digital agency” started a few years ago by a trio of nerdy, privileged, elite-educated dweebs who had no prior accomplishments in life, unless you would include working for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee as an accomplishment. From their luxurious offices in Washington, these parasites raked in around $2 million from the hapless Ossoff campaign during the first quarter of this year alone.
The firm’s founders are Greg Berlin, Jake Lipsett, and Charles Starnes — “three of the leading digital organizers in the Democratic Party,” as they modestly put it on the company website. In an article about Mothership, which was established in 2015, Director of Advertising and Advocacy Andy Amsler wrote about the importance of “a culture where young and fresh minds can thrive” and how campaigns must be “entrepreneurial and innovative, just like startups.” Jesus, can I throw up now? “When our firm was founded, we wanted to turn conventional wisdom in fundraising and advocacy on its head,” Amsler wrote in this same horrifying story. “Many thought it couldn’t be done, but through persistent and rigorous testing and optimization we’ve been able to crack the code.”
(I’m not sure if Mothership had a hand in this pathetic ad run by the Ossoff campaign, but this has to rank as one of the worst self-inflicted wounds of all time.)
Mothership was breathless in the days leading up to the election. “The eyes of the nation are on Georgia right now,” goes one post on the firm’s website. “Donald Trump, Paul Ryan, and every Republican in Washington are laser-focused on defeating Jon Ossoff. But with Mothership Strategies’ help, Jon has the resources to fight back in the final stretch of this Election.”
The firm’s Twitter feed christened the hashtag #VoteYourOssoff and on the day of the vote posted, “Do you have plans this Tuesday? You do now – come party your Ossoff with team Mothership.”
So there you have it. Thirty million dollars down the drain and the only ones who benefited were a bunch of bloodsucking consultants. The Democratic Party base.
