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A nonprofit organization founded by Stacey Abrams has agreed to pay a $300,000 fine for violating campaign finance laws over its spending in support of the Georgia Democrat’s candidacy during the 2018 governor’s race.
The Georgia Ethics Commission voted unanimously Wednesday to impose the penalty after finding that the New Georgia Project, which Abrams founded in 2013, and the affiliated New Georgia Project Action Fund had not disclosed their campaign contributions and spending after advocating for Abrams during the race that she lost to Gov. 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,” the consent order states.
The commission found that the nonprofits 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.
During Wednesday’s meeting, the commission’s executive director, David Emadi, said the two advocacy groups had admitted to 16 violations of law.
“While this is a significant fine in scale, I believe it’s also appropriate given the scope,” Emadi said.
The commission said the penalty represents 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 expenditures to bolster Abrams’ bid for governor, and to boost candidates for other statewide offices during the primaries and the general election, according to a copy of a consent order signed by attorneys for the groups.
A spokesperson for Abrams did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday but told The New York Times she “hasn’t been involved in the organization’s work since she departed in 2017.”
Aria Branch, an attorney for the groups, said they are “glad to finally put this matter behind us” to engage in its work building civic engagement.
“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 said.
The New Georgia Project at the time was led by Raphael Warnock who went on to become a Democratic senator for the state. The groups were first accused of wrongdoing in a complaint in 2019, before Warnock was elected.
Michael J. Brewer, a Warnock spokesperson, said in a statement that during his leadership of the New Georgia Project in 2018, “compliance decisions were not a part of that work.”
Zoë Richards is a politics reporter for NBC News.
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