Friday’s deadline to report fundraising for the first three months of 2022 has given us more information to sift through in some of Georgia’s most contested federal races.
We have a bigger story on the Senate contest here, along with a takeout on the growing wave of spending. A closer look at the spending revealed a few other highlights:
- Democratic challenger Marcus Flowers outraised U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District. He raised $2.4 million in the first three months of 2022. compared to her $1.1 million. And Greene spent about $300,000 more than she raised during the quarter. Still, she has $3 million in cash on hand, compared to Flowers’ $1.9 million. She has raised a total of $8.4 million for her reelection bid, while he’s raised about $7.1 million.
- Republican frontrunner Herschel Walker’s report included about $20,000 in small-dollar “anonymous” donations. The poultry company founder also reported collecting a $10,000 contribution from a Kentucky Fried Chicken political organization a few weeks after he delivered a speech at the group’s March convention.
- Walker’s got other plenty of other financial support beyond his first-quarter haul. The 34N22 PAC raised $3.25 million in the first three months of the year, spent about $440,000 and ended with about $3.3 million in its account.
- U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath continues to outfundraise fellow incumbent U.S. Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux in the 7th District. McBath reported $804,497.21 in receipts during the quarter, ending it with $2.9 million in the bank. Bourdeaux raised $592,579 and had $2.1 million in cash on hand. The third Democrat in the race, state Rep. Donna McLeod, reported that she didn’t raise or spend anything -- not a penny -- during the first three months of 2022.
- We had early word last week that Rich McCormick raised more than $600,000 during the quarter and ended it with $1.1 million in the bank. Now we can say that he continues to lead the GOP candidates in the 6th District. Jake Evans raised $411,163.18 during the period, including a $200,000 loan from the candidate to the campaign. He does have a bit more than McCormick in cash on hand: $1.2 million. Former state Rep. Meagan Hanson collected $117,109.00 during the period, including the $50,000 she loaned to her campaign. She has $299,432 in cash on hand.
***
Among the campaign expenses U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene reported for the last quarter was $10,000 to controversial California attorney John Eastman’s Constitutional Counsel Group, the Business Insider reports.
Eastman was at the center of efforts by former President Donald Trump to overturn the 2020 election results, pushing the idea that former Vice President Mike Pence had the authority to block Joe Biden’s certification as president.
The Business Insider reached out to Greene’s campaign about the payment, which was listed as unspecified “legal expenses.”
“Dr. Eastman is one of the leading constitutional attorneys in the country. When we need advice on significant constitutional issues, we have occasionally sought his counsel,” a campaign spokesperson said. “The particular issues for which we sought his advice are protected by attorney-client privilege, however.”
Eastman also testified to a Georgia Senate committee following the 2020 election that there was “more than enough” evidence for leaders to appoint an alternate slate of presidential electors, an idea a Georgia legal scholar called “total and utter nonsense that has no respectability whatsoever and has no place in any mainstream legal theories.”
***
The topline fundraising reports don’t tell the full story of some campaigns’ resources. Look no further than Senate Republicans’ plans to challenge U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock.
Politico reports this morning that the Senate Leadership Fund, which is the Washington-based money operation of Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, will pump at least $141 million into contested Senate races this cycle. The top destination for that money: Georgia, of course. More on why Georgia is on the GOP’s mind:
But beating incumbents is always hard, and Democratic senators are generally raising eye-popping sums like Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock's $13.6 million in the first quarter of this year. With Democratic candidates often outraising the GOP, Law said he expected many Republican candidates to be outspent this fall, requiring a brawny intervention from his PAC to “try to level that playing field.
***
U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff will visit communities across Georgia this week to talk up projects he helped secure federal funds for this year through earmarks.
He will start today by visiting Crisp Regional Hospital in Cordele, a community where federal dollars will fund transportation to help patients get to and from hospital visits. And in the afternoon, Ossoff will make a stop at Southern Regional Medical Center in Riverdale, which is receiving money for a new mental health or substance abuse unit.
On Tuesday, Ossoff will meet with senior leaders and enlisted soldiers at Ft. Stewart and Hunter Army Airfield. And on Wednesday he will brief Spelman College President Mary Schmidt Campbell and other leaders of Atlanta’s historically Black colleges and universities about the upgrades he helped direct to the Atlanta University Center. Later, he’ll hold a press conference at Pittsburgh Yards to talk about federal investments in the Atlanta Belt Line.
***
U.S. Sen. Rev. Raphael Warnock was back in the pulpit for Easter Sunday at Ebenezer Baptist Church as scheduled, after isolating in Washington last week following a positive COVID test.
Warnock told the congregation he had been vaccinated and boosted before testing positive, but that he’s confident that kept him from becoming seriously ill. He urged the audience to take advantage of the church’s free vaccination and testing program. “Don’t play with this thing,” he warned.
***
Before Cobb County voters decide next month on whether to greenlight multiple new cities in the county, as many as three three lawsuits are expected to challenge the idea of creating those cities at all.
Two suits have already been filed in Cobb Superior Court against the Cobb County Board of Elections, the Marietta Daily Journal reports, and a third is on its way. More on that:
The Vinings and Lost Mountain lawsuits, filed in Cobb Superior Court, are staked on nearly identical claims that the two city charters violate Georgia's principle of home rule.
(Allen Lightcap, the attorney leading the first two suits) at the time of the Vinings filing, said “the same constitutional infirmities" were found in the Lost Mountain and East Cobb bills.
State Rep. Ed Setzler, R-Acworth, who co-sponsored the cityhood bill for Lost Mountain, told the MDJ, “I trust that the county’s going to operate in good faith. The process has worked. We’ve dotted our i’s and crossed our t’s and followed the process that’s laid out in state law. I have every confidence (the county’s) going to defend the right for voters to make the decision on May 24, as the legislature and the governor’s directed.”
***
The New York Times has a feature on Zelma Redding’s lifelong love for her late husband, Otis Redding, and Otis Redding’s lifelong love for his hometown of Macon, Ga..
Such are the contours of Macon's greatest contemporary love story. But for decades, it has also fallen to Mrs. Redding to manage another love story, this one involving her husband and Macon itself. Beset by poverty and bedeviled by the ghosts of segregation, Mr. Redding's hometown, an old cotton hub 85 miles southeast of Atlanta, has long looked to the soul singer as a symbol of unity, holding up his tale of African American success as the best of what the city might be.
The piece goes on to detail the newest and most ambitious project of the Otis Redding Foundation-- a $9 million educational complex planned for downtown Macon. “The new home of the Otis Redding Center for the Arts will be a place for children to learn, practice and perform, with scholarships for poor students — a machine, if such a thing is even possible, for turning out more Otis Reddings.
***
Happy Tax Day! Don’t forget to file your paperwork by close-of-business today or request an extension.
***
As always, Jolt readers are some of our favorite tipsters. Send your best scoop, gossip and insider info to patricia.murphy@ajc.com, tia.mitchell@ajc.com and greg.bluestein@ajc.com.
Sign Up to receive the Morning Jolt & AJC Politics newsletters in your inbox.
About the Authors
