ATLANTA (AP) — The head of the Georgia Ethics Commission said Thursday that his agency is still trying to prove whether or not a voter advocacy group founded by Democrat Stacey Abrams illegally coordinated election work with Abrams' unsuccessful 2018 campaign for governor.
David Emadi, the commission's executive director, told a state Senate committee that the question of coordination is still under investigation. It has been more than seven years
since the 2018 election and 10 months since the New Georgia Project admitted illegal activity relating to raising and spending money to influence the 2018 election and a 2019 transit referendum in suburban Gwinnett County.
Under state law, the group was supposed to register as an independent campaign committee and disclose donors and spending. The New Georgia Project, which has since dissolved, paid a $300,000 fine, the largest ethics fine in state history.
“I can say that is something that has been and is being investigated,” Emadi said. “I think I can say that at previous hearings we presented evidence, and some of that evidence certainly gave credence to that question of whether or not coordination occurred.”
The New Georgia Project and Abrams have always denied coordinating spending and activity, which is illegal under state law. Evidence of contacts disclosed by the Ethics Commission between the group and Abrams' first campaign for governor has been thin.
Republican state senators voted in March for an investigatory committee to further examine the New Georgia Project's actions and to probe claims that $2 billion was improperly given to a coalition of groups trying to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. Abrams worked with one of the groups until the end of last year. The move comes as Republican Lt. Gov. Burt Jones runs for governor, committee Chairman Bill Cowsert of Athens runs for state attorney general and four other Republicans on the committee run for lieutenant governor.
Abrams has said that Republicans are targeting her because she has been politically effective. The former state House minority leader, Abrams founded the New Georgia Project in 2013. She resigned from the group in 2017, vaulting to national Democratic stardom when she came close to defeating Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in 2018. She parlayed voting rights after that election into a national platform and even consideration as Biden’s running mate in 2020, but lost a 2022 governor’s race rematch to Kemp by a broader margin.
Emadi told the committee Thursday that the Ethics Commission struggles to investigate illegal coordination because it can't question people under oath until after it has proved probable cause that they violated the law. When Cowsert asked him how the commission might be more effective, Emadi suggested giving it the power to put people under oath earlier in investigations. Emadi also suggested that lawmakers could enact some commission rules into law, to prevent rules from being challenged in court.
Some board members of the Ethics Commission have suggested individuals should face criminal penalties or personal fines for knowingly breaking campaign finance laws. Today, campaigns can be fined and individuals can be ordered to repay money they improperly took from campaign accounts.
Cowsert said he wants to see “personal accountability” for people intentionally breaking the law, whether that consists of a fine or even prison time.
