Group Stacey Abrams Created To Help Herself Faces Record Fine

A dubious voter rights group founded by race-baiting political opportunist Stacey Abrams has been hit with the heftiest ethics fine in Georgia history for campaign finance violations that election law experts are describing as “disgusting,” “shameful,” and hypocritical. 

The Georgia State Ethics Commission on Wednesday unanimously approved a consent order fining the New Georgia Project and its political action arm a whopping $300,000 after the get-out-the-vote group admitted raising millions for Abrams’ failed gubernatorial campaign — without registering as an independent political committee. That’s illegal under Georgia campaign finance law. And so is failing to disclose contributions and expenditures. 

In total, the New Georgia Project and its super PAC partner admitted to 16 violations of the law, spending “unregulated and unknown monies” during the 2018 election cycle and on a 2019 failed public transportation referendum campaign. Ethics officials report that the entities raised and failed to disclose north of $4.2 million, spending all but about $1 million of that to benefit the far-left candidate’s unsuccessful run for governor and the campaigns of fellow Democrats. The New Georgia Project failed to report $646,000 in contributions and $173,000 in expenditures tied to the referendum campaign, according to David Emadi, executive secretary of the Ethics Commission. 

Emadi told commission members the fine represents the largest campaign finance penalty in the history of the Georgia Ethics Commission, and it appears to be the largest nationally. He said it is “significant but appropriate given the scope” of the laws violated. 

“This clearly represents the largest, most significant instance of an organization illegally influencing our elections in Georgia at a statewide level that we’ve ever uncovered,” Emadi said during the commission’s two-hour meeting. 

Georgia election integrity watchdog Garland Favorito said the record fine is a significant step toward accountability and transparency in Georgia’s elections. 

“We hope all branches of government, including the judiciary, will follow suit to protect Georgia voters for future elections,” Favorito, co-founder of VoterGA, told The Federalist. 

‘Total Fraud’

For Abrams, who has long pushed false accusations (disinformation, in the parlance of the left) that elections officials are suppressing the votes of black Americans and other minorities, unprecedented campaign ethics violations against the advocacy group she launched is not a good look. 

“It ultimately shows what a hypocrite she is,” election law expert Hans von Spakovsky of the Heritage Foundation told The Federalist Wednesday evening in a phone interview. 

Von Spakovsky, a former member of the Federal Election Commission, said Abrams’ race-laden allegations against Georgia election integrity reforms and conservative political leaders have been debunked time and time again via rising voter turnout numbers. 

“This proves what a total fraud she was and is,” he said. “Now we know at the time she was making those outrageous claims, her organization was breaking the law in the campaign finance and election areas to try to get her elected.” 

Abrams could not be reached for comment Wednesday evening.

‘Focus on Registering’

Abrams, according to the ethics commission, founded the New Georgia Project in 2013 as part of a division of her corporation, Third Sector Development. She served as CEO of the entity from August 1998 until March 2019, according to an online resume of her leftist credentials. 

Abrams launched the New Georgia Project to “focus on registering more Black and other non-white Georgians to vote, earning her national recognition for her work for growing the state’s electorate and boosting engagement among disaffected voters,” according to the Georgia Recorder. 

According to the settlement, the New Georgia Project was boosting engagement — votes — for Abrams. 

Emadi laid out the mountain of evidence that indicated electioneering by the ostensibly grassroots advocacy groups. He showed campaign mailers and social media ads funded by the New Georgia Project urging Georgians in black and Hispanic communities to get out and vote for Abrams. He noted a “pretty robust” door-knocking campaign “clearly advocating for Ms. Abrams’ election. Thousands of doors, thousands of voters, he said. By the end of October 2018, the group operated field offices statewide,” Emadi said.

It appears Abrams was no longer affiliated with New Georgia by the time her gubernatorial campaign launched, but she certainly did benefit from its advocacy. She narrowly lost to Republican Brian Kemp in the nationally watched 2018 election. The incumbent won by a solid 7 1/2 percentage points in the 2022 rematch with Abrams. 

‘Shameful’ Spending Secrets

David Fox, attorney for the New Georgia Project, told commission members that his clients are “eager to put this matter behind them.” While organization officials disagree with some of the agency’s findings, they “believe this is a reasonable resolution for this longstanding dispute that will enable everyone to move forward,” Fox told commission members via video conference. 

The legal battle has been going on for more than five years because, commission officials say, the liberal activists have moved to stop the investigation every step of the way. They tried and failed multiple times to kill subpoenas over the years. They’ve taken the commission to state and federal court, and have accused the Republican members of conducting a politically driven witch hunt into a harmless nonprofit created to boost voter turnout. 

Records ultimately obtained found the New Georgia Project and its super PAC were breaking the law to benefit the candidate who created the group. 

Commission Vice Chair Rick Thompson applauded the work of the investigators and the attorney general’s office but said the penalties should be even stiffer for such “shameful” abuses of campaign finance laws. They should be criminal offenses, he said, but that’s not the way the law is written. 

“I think actions like this should be criminal because of the significant impact secret money can have on elections,” he told his colleagues. “Organizations attempting to keep their election spending secret is shameful and does a disservice to our elections and voters. To continually stall and not cooperate with our investigation is extremely disheartening.” 

Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.