Voting rights group founded by Stacey Abrams fined for illegal campaigning

The New Georgia Project, a prominent voting rights organization founded by Stacey Abrams, has been fined $300,000 by the state ethics commission of Georgia for illegally campaigning for Abrams and other Democratic candidates during the 2018 election cycle.

The consent order ends a years-long investigation that the voting rights group had broken state campaign finance laws by raising and spending millions in support of candidate without proper registration and disclosure. The fine is the largest in Georgia history, according to the state ethics commission.

During the 2018 election cycle, the Rev Raphael Warnock – now a US senator for Georgia – was chairman of the organization’s board. He resigned as chairman in January 2020.

Ethics commission investigators noted talking points used in scripts for New Georgia Project canvassers and phone-bank callers that explicitly advocated for Abrams, and how the group used social media to promote donation links to Act Blue and the Democratic campaign. The organization was also cited for illegally campaigning for a transit referendum in the Atlanta-area suburb of Gwinnett county.

“If an organization is electioneering in Georgia as an independent committee, they have to register with the commission,” said Dave Emadi, executive secretary of the state ethics commission.

“They have to disclose the money they raise and the source of that money – where they are bringing in their dollars from. They have to disclose how they are spending that, and they have to indicate in the disclosures what they are advocating for or against and name the candidates.”

The commission unanimous vote to issue the fine followed a presentation showing how the distinction between the New Georgia Project and its associated Super Pac, the New Georgia Project Action Fund was not sufficiently independent.

The New Georgia Project admitted to 16 violations of the law, Emadi said, covering $4.2m in contributions and $3.2m in spending during the 2018 gubernatorial race.

While this finding applied to state law, federal law also forbids organizations designated as charities like the New Georgia Project from campaigning directly for candidates.

Georgia’s political establishment has long had a culture of indifference to formal ethics complaints. Accusations about improper spending in support of Democratic candidates emerged in 2019. At the time, the state ethics commission had been coming out of a period of impaired leadership. Its previous executive had been replaced amid accusations of watching pornography at work and failing to pursue investigations.

The case has faced three appeals over the life of the complaint, including one trip through the federal courts. A probable cause hearing did not find its way to the ethics commission until 2022.

Abrams and Warnock did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

“We are glad to finally put this matter behind us so the New Georgia Project can fully devote its time and attention to its efforts to civically engage and register Black, brown, and young voters in Georgia,” said Aria Branch, counsel to the New Georgia Project, in a statement.

“While we remain disappointed that the federal court ruling on the constitutionality of the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Act was overturned on entirely procedural grounds, we accept this outcome and are eager to turn the page on activities that took place more than five years ago.”