A Georgia Republican governor candidate questions legality of rival’s $10M campaign loan

ATLANTA (AP) — A Republican candidate for Georgia governor asked a state ethics body Thursday to determine whether his GOP rival illegally lent $10 million to a campaign committee to evade restrictions under state campaign finance law.

Attorney General Chris Carr’s campaign lawyer asked the Georgia Ethics Commission for a Lt. Gov. Burt Jones was prohibited from making the loan to his leadership committee, a special fundraising vehicle that allows the governor, lieutenant governor and legislative leaders to raise unlimited funds.

A spokesperson for Jones called the complaint a “weak attempt to get attention” in a statement.

Carr and some other candidates for state office cannot have the so-called leadership committees for campaign fundraising under a 2021 state law that created the committees unless they win their party’s nomination for governor or lieutenant governor. Instead, they are limited to candidate committees, which can raise a maximum of $8,400 from each donor. Opponents say that’s an unfair advantage for incumbents.

Jones and Carr are competing for the Republican nomination to succeed Gov. Brian Kemp, who legally can’t run again after two terms. The GOP primary is next May, followed by the general election in November 2026.

Jones filed documents showing he made loans of $7.5 million and $2.5 million to the WBJ Leadership Committee when he announced his long-anticipated run for governor on July 8.

The cash infusion was part of Jones’ strategy to set himself up as the front-runner in the race.

Carr announced his run for governor last year, saying he needed a long runway to raise money because he isn’t personally wealthy. Carr’s campaign has been voicing concerns for months that Jones will use his leadership committee and his family wealth from a string of gas stations to win the primary.

Bryan Tyson, a lawyer for Carr’s campaign, on Thursday requested an advisory opinion from the Ethics Commission on whether the loans are legal. Tyson argued that under Georgia law, loans can be made only to a candidate committee, not to a freestanding political action committee, or even a leadership committee, which is allowed to coordinate with a candidate committee.

Carr’s campaign cited a 2022 federal judge’s ruling that a leadership committee for Gov. Brian Kemp could not spend money to get Kemp reelected during the Republican primary that year. U.S. District Judge Mark Cohen found that the “unequal campaign finance scheme” violated challenger David Perdue’s First Amendment right to free speech.

Jones spokesperson Kendyl Parker said in a statement she was “not surprised by this weak attempt to get attention — it’s exactly what you’d expect from a campaign that’s losing steam with many months to go until Election Day.”

Tyson suggested that if Jones could make a loan to the leadership committee and then raise unlimited sums to repay himself, he could give the repaid money to his candidate committee to spend in the primary. That would evade Cohen’s ban on the use of leadership committee money in the primary. Tyson warned that such laundering would “wash away contribution limits entirely.”

The Ethics Commission must issue an advisory opinion within 60 days under state law.

In a related complaint to the commission on Thursday, Tyson alleged that Jones broke state law because his previous financial disclosures didn’t show that he had $10 million in cash or securities to be able to afford such large loans.

Tyson pointed to a 2022 financial disclosure that showed Jones had a net worth of $12.4 million, but only $700,000 in cash and securities. The rest was tied up in the value of real estate and Jones’ insurance agency, the disclosure stated. Tyson noted that Jones’ 2024 disclosure showed he hadn’t sold real estate or his business, arguing “it appears he could not have sufficient liquid assets to loan his leadership committee $10 million.”

Ethics complaints can take years to resolve, but Tyson said it was “imperative” that the commission move quickly to determine the source of the loan, whether it was properly reported and whether Jones planned to spend from his leadership committee in the primary.