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Jon Ossoff (left) and Karen Handel

House Democrats are pumping more resources into their push to flip Georgias 6th District.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee laid out another six-figure ad buy for a 30-second TV spot that slams Republican Karen Handel. The group has now spent nearly $5 million backing Democrat Jon Ossoffs bid to win the suburban Atlanta district.

The ad claims theres a pattern in Handels use of taxpayer money, invoking her use of an SUV and spending while she was Georgias secretary of state. TheClub for Growth has also deployed similar attacks against Handel in recent months.

The Lexus is a reference to the car Handel had while secretary of state, and its a criticism that came up in her Senate race against David Perdue in 2014. Handels campaign has said she had owned the wheels before she won statewide office.

As to her spending when she was secretary of state, the Handel campaign has pointed to a recentPolitiFact articlethat considered a previous Democratic attack on her officialbudget to be mostly false.

The spending is part of an all-out war between national Democrats and Republicans to win the June 20 runoff. The race is by far the most expensive of its kind, and the top three Republicans President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Paul Ryan have all campaigned for Handel.

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Georgia 6th: House Democrats up their attacks on Handel - Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog)

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But as the party ramps up its efforts to take control of the House and hold onto a spate of red-state Senate seats in the 2018 midterm elections, some operatives see all the Russia talk as a distraction from an even more potent campaign issue: Health care.

Even those following the Russia probe's twists and turns closely say the GOP's push to repeal the Affordable Care Act is easier to explain and matters more to moderates and working-class voters that Democrats need to win back.

"I would encourage all of our candidates to make sure that health care stays front and center of the election," said Guy Cecil, the chairman of the Democratic super PAC Priorities USA.

"The visceral, gut reaction that people have makes it more powerful than Russia," he said.

New polls out Wednesday showed that Americans are increasingly attuned to the Russia investigation -- and the fallout from Trump's decision to fire FBI Director James Comey because he wouldn't shut that investigation down.

Still, many Democrats acknowledged that it's much easier to craft a digital advertisement or a 30-second television spot based on the direct pocketbook impact of the House GOP's health care measure -- which the Senate is expected to address in the coming weeks -- than it is to explain the breakneck developments in the Russia investigation. And health care, unlike the Russia investigation, is free from concerns about the trustworthiness of Comey, who many Democrats still blame for Hillary Clinton's loss.

Voters, Cecil said, have "a gut understanding; it's a day-by-day understanding of the impact of health care. They understand what it means to have coverage. The fact that it affects something that is personal, that happens to them daily, makes it a very powerful issue."

No matter the outcome of the Russia investigation, "health care will be a cornerstone issue in 2018," said Markos Moulitsas, the founder and publisher of the liberal blog Daily Kos.

"It motivates the base like few other issues, and more and more, moderates are aligned with liberals," Moulitsas said. "It's a win-win."

In the backlash over the Republican health care efforts, many progressives see a new opportunity to counter -- if the party returns to power -- with a push for a national single-payer, or "Medicare for all," plan.

But Russia also gives progressives an opening to call for Trump's impeachment -- something the party's leaders on Capitol Hill have not yet done.

"Russia shows just how anti-democratic the Republican Party is, happy to let a foreign power intervene in our elections in the pursuit of power. It proves the dishonesty of Trump and his regime and his party. It proves their incompetence," Moulitsas said.

"But most importantly, it provides a real basis for impeachment. So the issue isn't 'what Trump did was bad, look!' but 'we have no option given what Trump did except impeachment,'" he said. "So 2018 will be about two things: impeach Trump, and let's get single-payer health care. And both those issues will mobilize the liberal base like nothing else, and neither should turn off moderate voters."

Zac Petkanas, who was immersed in the Russia investigation while leading the rapid response efforts of Clinton's campaign and then the Democratic National Committee before launching his own firm, said there are simple ways for Democratic candidates to make their case against Trump on Russia: A president who cheated the system and a congressional GOP unwilling to defend the country and hold him accountable.

"And that goes to the corruption that people already believe exists in Washington; that goes to the abuse of power that people see running rampant in this city," Petkanas said.

Still, he acknowledged, the Russia investigation doesn't pack the clear, personal impact of health care.

"When I'm talking to candidates," Petkanas said, "I tell them that they should be saying 'health care' five times for every time that they say the word 'Russia.'"

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Even amid Russia probe, many Democrats see health care as their real winner - CNN

President Trump touted his new infrastructure investment "generation" plan in Cincinnati on June 7. He said it would include at least $200 billion in "direct federal investment." (The Washington Post)

If President Trumps infrastructure week was winning converts,Rep. Rick Nolan (D-Minn.) was exactly the sort of Democrat who should have come over. Elected in 2012, he watched his blue-leaning district in northeast Minnesota swing hard right, giving Trump a 15-point victory. If he ran for reelection, hed be at the top of Republican target lists, with attack ads informing voters how a member of the Transportation Committee hadfailed to deliver.

Nolanthought the Trump pitch had been a bust.

I thought a trillion dollars for infrastructure meant a trillion dollars for infrastructure, Nolan said. Hes talking about 90 percent from the private sector and 10 percent from the feds? Its not going to happen. Its exactly backwards.

The Trump infrastructure push, meant to be at the very least a welcome political distraction in a scandal-dominated week, has become the latest example of the presidents vanishing clout. A White House signing ceremony had the president sending a toothless letter to Congress. A speech in Cincinnati offered few details and plenty of digressions. And an accompanying memo to reporters contained more about the problems with President Barack Obamas 2009 stimulus bill than the details of Trumps $200 billion infrastructure goals.

The result: Democrats, who once worried about the president barnstorming the country to take credit for new jobs and investment, are feeling no pressure to act on an amorphous and easily demonized plan.

When he called for a trillion-dollar infrastructure bill, we thought that was great, said Senate MinorityLeader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) at this weeks newsconference. What theyve proposed is privatizing most of our infrastructure to give wealthy financiers tax breaks on projects they were probably going to build anyway itll lead to Trump tolls from one end of the country to the other.

What had worried Democrats, after a surprise 2016 defeat powered by a collapse of Rust Belt and labor support, was an infrastructure plan that would have doled out no-strings money to states.When he started talking about it, he compared it to the wars in Iraq were gonna stop these wars of choice and spend the money here, Nolan said. That was a powerful message. In late November 2016, Trump adviser Stephen K. Bannon told the Hollywood Reporter that the ideal infrastructure plan would be financed by deficit spending.

With negative interest rates throughout the world, its the greatest opportunity to rebuild everything, Bannon said. Shipyards, ironworks, get them all jacked up. Were just going to throw it up against the wall and see if it sticks. It will be as exciting as the 1930s.

That kicked off a month of awkward Democratic reactions, with progressives such asSen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) suggesting that they could work with the president on infrastructure, drawing backlashes from their horrified base. On Jan. 23, Democrats attempted to preempt a populist Trump proposal with their own $1 trillion infrastructure package, funding everything from broadband to sewer pipes at a higher rate than the 2009 stimulus.

The White House did nothing. To the surprise of defeated Democrats, the infrastructure plan re-emerged as a tangle of public-private partnerships, where according to the few available details local governments would trade the traditional federal match for infrastructure projects with 80/20 or 90/10 private/public funding.

Its been the most convoluted thing you could imagine, said Ron Klain, who was Vice President Joe Bidens chief of staff and led the stimulus team in 2009. I thought to some extent that when Trump had a highly simple message Ill spend money here hed learned our lesson. We had this bill that was like Noahs ark for every project, and hed just spend money. And instead its like Pharaoh telling people to build bricks without straw, because Republicans dont want to spend the money.

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'Infrastructure week,' designed to challenge Democrats, finds no takers - Washington Post

WASHINGTON The top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has committed to vote against a U.S.-Saudi deal for precision-guided munitions, a signal Democrats could oppose the deal en masse.

Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., said Wednesday he would vote to block the sale of $510 million in smart bombs to be used in the war in Yemen because the Trump administration has not yet articulated a strategy to end the war through political means.

Instead, this administrations approach appears to be more weapons sales, Cardin said in a measured statement Wednesday that expressed some support for Riyadh. The administrations decision to proceed with the sale of precision-guided munitions, absent leadership to push all parties toward a political process for a negotiated settlement, including Saudi Arabia, sends the absolutely wrong signal to our partners and our adversaries.

The vote could come as soon as Thursday, when the big news is expected to be former FBI Director's James Comey testifying before the Senate on his interactions with President Trump over Russian meddling in U.S. elections.

"I know Comey hearing is the thing, but don't sleep on a possible Senate vote tomor[row] on Saudi arms sale," Murphy said in a tweet on Wednesday evening. "I'm hustling for votes as we speak..."

The resolution would halt three planned deals. It targets packages of Joint Direct Attack Munitions off the Royal Saudi Air Forces western-made F-15 fighter aircraft; Paveway laser-guided bombs for Saudi Tornado and Typhoon aircraft, and the integration of the FMU-152A/B Joint Programmable Fuze into the MK-80, BLU-109, and BLU-100 munitions.

On Tuesday, Paul said he has gotten little traction with Republicans to block the arms deal and was not sure it would win the simple majority it would need to pass. The best hope was to send a message asserting Congress's war-making authority.

Whichever way it turns out, I think its an important issue because its a proxy debate for should we be at war in Yemen which we are in, in a way, already, Paul said. That should be voted on in Congress and shouldnt be glossed over. When the Obama administration finally pulled back, I think they were influenced by our debate [in the Senate].

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., dismissed the vote as crazy.

I think we need the Saudis right now, and Ive put pressure on them for years and years and years, and theyve made some improvements but they have a long way to go, McCain said. Theyre not a democracy, theyre not the United States of America.

The White House has also been on the defensive over an announced $110 billion arms sale to Riyadh that may be less than advertised. The State Department has to sign off on much of the sales, and about $24 billion were discussed with the Obama administration and were well underway.

There are several reasons for Democrats to oppose the Saudi deal, said one Democratic aide. The vote could serve to show Congresss's concern for the humanitarian crisis amid the administrations apparent ambivalence on humanitarian issues in the Middle East.

Democrats have been vocal on this issue before. Murphy, Paul, Franken and Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., introduced a bill in April to suspend certain air-to-ground munition deliveries until the U.S. president certifies that the Saudis show a commitment to fighting terrorism, facilitating the flow of humanitarian and commercial goods, and to protecting civilians in Yemen. A similar resolution was introduced in the House on May 25 with six co-sponsors.

But Murphy said lawmakers then had legitimate concerns the tank sale was not directly connected to the Yemen war, while this munition sales clear connection and history of disapproval by the Obama administration should earn it more opposition.

I think this vote will be very different, Murphy said Tuesday.

As of Wednesday afternoon, some Democrats were still undecided. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said of the munitions sale: Im looking at it. I think Senator Murphy and Senator Paul are making some important points.

I think both parties have always seen arms sales as a means to extract human rights concessions from Middle Eastern governments, and the lack of human rights conditions on this arms sale is worrying to both Republicans and Democrats, Murphy said.

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US Senate Democrats rallying votes against Saudi arms sale - DefenseNews.com