A voting rights group founded by Stacey Abrams will pay $300,000 for illegally supporting her 2018 gubernatorial campaign — the largest fine ever assessed for violating Georgia campaign finance laws.
Under a consent order approved by the State Ethics Commission on Wednesday, the New Georgia Project admitted it raised and spent millions of dollars to support Abrams’ unsuccessful campaign without registering as an independent political committee and disclosing its activities, as required by state law. It also supported the campaigns of other Democratic candidates that year, as well as the unsuccessful 2019 Gwinnett County MARTA referendum.
In all, the New Georgia Project and an affiliated group, the New Georgia Project Action Fund, admitted to 16 violations of state campaign finance laws.
It’s a dramatic about-face for a group that for years denied it did anything improper and mocked the investigation as a politically motivated “fishing expedition.” On Wednesday, it admitted to every allegation the commission had leveled against it.
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez/AJC
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez/AJC
It was also a stunning blow to the political organization that helped propel Abrams to the national spotlight in her campaign against Republican Brian Kemp. The New Georgia Project’s eye-popping voter registration figures were a fixture in national coverage of Abrams and helped establish her as a rising Democratic star and a prominent voting rights activist.
The consent order also affirms what Republicans, and even some Democrats, had long suspected during the hard-fought 2018 campaign against Republican Brian Kemp: The group Abrams founded to register left-leaning voters crossed the line by advocating directly for her election.
David Fox, an attorney for the New Georgia Project, told the commission the consent order “relates to events from more than five years ago and respondents are eager to put the matter behind them.”
“At a fundamental level, respondents understand and respect the commission’s position on the facts and the law,” Fox said. “And we believe this is a reasonable resolution of this long-standing dispute that will enable everyone to move forward.”
A spokesman for Abrams, who is not a party to the case, declined to comment.
U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, who led the New Georgia Project in 2018 at the time of the infractions, released a statement through his office saying that “compliance decisions were not a part of that work.”
Wednesday’s action resolves an investigation that began in 2019. But commission Chairman James Kreyenbuhl said the matter could have been resolved years ago, if the New Georgia Project had not fought the investigation.
“I don’t care if you’re a Republican, a Democrat, a Libertarian, Green Party — if people are breaking the law and illegally influencing an election, particularly to the extent they did, that should upset you,” commission Executive Secretary David Emadi said after the board’s unanimous vote.
Abrams founded the New Georgia Project in 2013 to register Black, Hispanic, Asian and young voters and to increase civic engagement. It was the first of several Abrams-founded groups that helped make her a formidable political force in Georgia and across the country. Her 2020 voter mobilization efforts are credited with helping Joe Biden become the first Democratic presidential candidate to win Georgia in nearly 30 years.
Abrams has not been affiliated with the group since she left to run for governor in 2017. The New Georgia Project says it has registered hundreds of thousands of Georgia voters.
But even some fellow Democrats cast doubts about the group’s registration record amid discrepancies in its reports in 2015. And the ethics commission investigation concluded the group advocated for Abrams’ election through canvassing, distributing campaign literature and other means.
On Wednesday, Emadi walked the commission through invoices, checks, sworn statements and other evidence that showed the New Georgia Project engaged in election advocacy.
Such activities would not have been illegal if the New Georgia Project registered as an independent political committee and disclosed them. It did neither.
According to the consent order, the group failed to disclose $4.2 million in campaign contributions and $3.2 million in expenditures.
In addition to Abrams, the group also promoted unsuccessful 2018 Democratic candidates Sara Riggs-Amico (lieutenant governor), John Barrow (secretary of state) and Charlie Bailey (attorney general). And the following year, it raised $646,423 and spent $173,643 for the failed Gwinnett MARTA referendum, according to the order.
In addition to failing to disclose those activities, the violations include failing to register as an independent committee and failing to file numerous required disclosure reports.
Under the consent agreement, the New Georgia Project must pay $150,000 within 30 days and the other half within a year. Emadi said it’s the largest civil penalty assessed for campaign finance violations in Georgia history — the previous high mark was an $80,000 fine paid by the Georgia Association of Realtors political action committee in 2008 for failing to disclose contributions — and may be the highest such fine assessed by any state.
Republicans who had long complained of improper coordination between the Abrams-backed group and her campaign celebrated the record-setting fine.
“Every single thing we said about the New Georgia Project was true,” said Cody Hall, a political adviser to Kemp. “And there are serious questions that need to be asked about the operations of all her organizations.”
Others portrayed the fine as disastrous for Abrams' political future. Abrams hasn’t ruled out a third bid for governor and Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, a Republican who is expected to run for the office next year, fired off a statement saying the Democrat’s “illegal grift is being exposed.”
Wednesday’s action brings to a close an investigation that dragged on for more than five years.
Emadi announced the investigation in 2019 after Kemp — who had defeated Abrams the previous year in a bitter, close-fought campaign — appointed him to lead the commission. Emadi had donated $600 to Kemp’s campaign, and Abrams supporters called the investigation a politically motivated fishing expedition. Emadi denied any political motivation.
In 2020, the commission fined another group, Gente4Abrams (People for Abrams), $50,000 for failing to report money it had spent to help Abrams’ campaign.
The New Georgia Project denied it had done anything improper and Abrams' advisers said for years they provided thousands of documents that should exonerate her. But under Wednesday’s consent order, the group admitted to every allegation brought forth by the commission.
“This was an extremely complex case. It required an extensive investigation — probably the most complex investigation in ethics commission history,” Emadi told reporters after the vote. “The length was unfortunate, but it was entirely due to the fault of the New Georgia Project attempting to elude accountability at every turn.”
Still pending is the investigation of a separate complaint that Abrams’ campaign illegally coordinated its activities with outside groups. Emadi said he could not comment on the status of the investigation.
Staff writer Greg Bluestein contributed to this report
