For breaking campaign finance regulations by spending money to help the Georgia Democrat’s candidacy in the 2018 gubernatorial election, a nonprofit organization created by Stacey Abrams has agreed to pay a $300,000 fine.
The Georgia Ethics Commission unanimously decided to impose the penalty on Wednesday after discovering that Abrams’s 2013-founded New Georgia Project and its affiliated New Georgia Project Action Fund failed to disclose their campaign spending and contributions after supporting Abrams in the election, which she lost to Governor Brian Kemp.
“These expenditures included, but were not limited to, canvassing activities, literature expressly advocating for the election of candidates, social media engagement, and operating field offices with paid staff where those electioneering activities were organized,” according to the consent order.
Due to their campaign activities for Abrams, the nonprofit organizations failed to register with the commission as an independent committee in 2017 and 2018, as required under state law, the commission discovered.
During the hearing on Wednesday, David Emadi, the executive director of the commission, stated that the groups had acknowledged 16 legal infractions.
Emadi stated, “I think it’s appropriate given the scope, even though this is a significant fine in scale.”
The penalty is the biggest fine in its history, according to the commission.
According to a copy of a consent order signed by the groups’ attorneys, the groups did not disclose $3.2 million in spending to support Abrams’ bid for governor and to support candidates for other statewide offices during the primaries and the general election, and $4.2 million in contributions during the 2018 election.
Requests for comment on Wednesday were not immediately answered by an Abrams representative. Abrams hasn’t been active in the organization’s activities since she left in 2017, a representative told The New York Times.
The organizations are “glad to finally put this matter behind us” so they may continue their work fostering civic involvement, according to Aria Branch, one of their attorneys.
“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,” Branch stated.
Raphael Warnock, who later became a Democratic senator for the state, was the leader of the New Georgia Project at the time. Before Warnock was chosen, in 2019, a complaint was filed accusing the groups of misconduct.
In a statement, Warnock spokesperson Michael J. Brewer stated that compliance decisions were not a component of the job he was doing as the leader of the New Georgia Project in 2018.