(The Center Square) – The Georgia Ethics Commission levied a record-breaking on the New Georgia Project in January, but was unable to prove any individuals coordinated to skirt campaign laws, the executive director of the commission told a Senate committee on Thursday.
Former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams founded the New Georgia Project in 2013. She left the organization before she began her 2018 run for the state’s top job.
The investigation revealed 95% of the New Georgia Project’s activity was scripts, door knockers and canvassers encouraging people to vote for Abrams, David Emadi, executive director of the Georgia Ethics Commission, told the Senate Special Committee on Investigations.
The ethics committee investigation labeled the New Georgia Project a Super Political Action Committee, or PAC, according to Emadi’s testimony to the committee. The organization admitted in January that it failed to file disclosure reports with the ethics commission for the 2018 primary and general elections, and that it failed to disclose over $4.2 million in illegal contributions and over $3.2 million in political expenditures.
The admission was part of a $300,000 record fine levied by the committee.
What the fine did not address is coordination between the Super PAC and Abram’s campaign.
“The issue isn’t, ‘Did they spend the money?'” Emadi said. “The issue is where they are talking to the candidate about doing it and was the candidate directing them to spend the unlimited dollars in the way they wanted to circumvent contribution limits.”
Committee chairman Bill Cowsert, R-Athens, said it’s a loophole he wants to close.
“Whoever set this scheme up and put it in operation and pulled it off is still out there and I don’t see why any of these committees out there that are registered with you or not registered are deterred from doing it,” Cowsert said. “I don’t want the next General Assembly to be sitting here in 2031 talking about the 2026 election that somebody stole by illegal contributions or nonreported contributions.”
Emadi said the commission does not have a great mechanism to question people.
“Let’s take this case,” Emadi said. “If I had had the ability to question a number of people, the new Georgia project in 2019, 2020, maybe we could prove coordination. But without that you’re never going to prove coordination unless you have a whistleblower or someone who has made a statement in writing that can prove it.”
The settlement with the New Georgia Project took 5½ years to reach. Emadi said he wished the fine were higher.
“It’s tax dollars,” Emadi said. “If it means a resolution versus another year and a half of trial and appeals, I am not going to say ‘no’ to them admitting they broke the law.”
The New Georgia Project announced last month that it was dissolving. The Center Square was unsuccessful getting comment prior to publication.
The ethics commission has a list of who donated the $4.2 million to the New Georgia Project, Emadi said. The Center Square filed an open records request with the commission for a copy of the donations.
Senate Minority Leader Harold Jones II, D–Augusta, called Thursday’s meeting a “state-funded witch hunt.”
“As Georgians face health insurance premiums that have doubled and even tripled, the Senate should not be wasting time on political persecutions that have already been fully investigated elsewhere,” Jones said in a statement after the meeting. “Our focus must be on solving the affordability crisis, the housing crisis and the rapidly rising cost of utilities.”
The ethics commission is pursuing the Georgia Republican Assembly political action committee for “doing the same thing – smaller scale in terms of the amount of money but it’s the same concept – illegally spending money without disclosing to influence election results over the last several years,” Emadi said. “We’ll go after Republicans. We’ll go after Democrats.”
The Senate Special Committee on Investigations will meet again on Dec. 17 or Dec. 18, Cowsert said. He did not say if the committee will hear from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. The committee is investigating her prosecution of President Donald Trump and others for election interference.
Willis was supposed to have appeared on Thursday but had a scheduled conflict, according to the Senate press office.
