A nonprofit founded by Stacey Abrams has agreed to pay a $300,000 fine for violating campaign finance laws for its spending in support of the Georgia Democrat’s candidacy during the 2018 gubernatorial race.
The Georgia Ethics Commission voted unanimously Wednesday to impose the sanction after finding that the New Georgia Project, which Abrams founded in 2013, and the affiliated New Georgia Project Action Fund had failed to disclose their campaign contributions and expenses after to defend Abrams in the race. , who lost to Governor Brian Kemp.
“These expenses included, but were not limited to, canvassing activities, literature expressly advocating for the election of candidates, social media participation, and field office operations with paid staff where such election activities were organized,” the consent order says.
The commission found that the nonprofit groups had not registered with the commission as an independent committee in 2017 and 2018, as required by state law due to their campaign work for Abrams.
The commission’s executive director, David Emadi, said at Wednesday’s meeting that the groups had admitted to 16 violations of the law.
“While this is a significant fine for its scale, I believe it is also appropriate given its scope,” Emadi said.
The commission said the penalty is the largest fine in its history.
The groups failed to disclose $4.2 million in contributions during the 2018 election and $3.2 million in spending to bolster Abrams’ candidacy for governor and boost candidates for other state offices during the primary and general election, according to a copy of a signed consent order. by lawyers for the groups.
A spokesperson for Abrams did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday. A spokesperson told The New York Times that Abrams “has not been involved in the organization’s work since she left in 2017.”
Aria Branch, an attorney for the groups, said they are “glad to finally put this matter behind us” to engage in their work building civic engagement.
“While we remain disappointed that the federal court’s ruling on the constitutionality of the Georgia Campaign Finance and Government Transparency Act has been overturned on entirely procedural grounds, we accept this outcome and look forward to turning the page on the activities that took place more than five years ago,” Rama said.
The New Georgia Project at the time was led by Raphael Warnock, who later became a Democratic senator from the state. The groups were first accused of wrongdoing in a complaint in 2019, before Warnock was elected.
Michael J. Brewer, a spokesman for Warnock, said in a statement that during his leadership of the New Georgia Project in 2018, “enforcement decisions were not part of that work.”
