By Erick Erickson

As David Drucker accurately notes today, Paul Ryan’s Congressional Leadership Fund saved the Georgia special election for the GOP.

For the past several months, Jon Ossoff got a complete pass. The Republicans were ripping each other to shreds. Everybody was piling on Karen Handel. Then several of them shifted to attacking Bob Gray. None of them laid a glove on Jon Ossoff.

The Speaker’s super PAC got involved and started an air war against Ossoff. The guy had so much money he was even running ads on my radio program, which costs a pretty penny. The Speaker’s PAC responded in kind. An Ossoff ad often began being followed by a Congressional Leadership Fund ad attacking Ossoff.

On top of that, the PAC also funded a ground game of door to door workers. I know several people who were involved in that effort. They walked the district reminding voters that there was an election and the Democrats had a chance to win. They raised awareness of the importance of the race while the GOP was distracted.

Only after the Congressional Leadership Fund started attacking Ossoff did Republican awareness increase about what was as stake. Only then did Ossoff’s numbers start declining.

Republicans spent over three quarters of the race attacking each other and Ossoff got a completely free pass.

I’m sure some will hate to do it and some will even complain that I am overstating the case. But I saw it first hand and those of us in the metro-Atlanta area heard the ads. They were the only ones shutting down Ossoff’s momentum. Speaker Ryan, more than just about anyone else, saved Georgia’s sixth congressional district.