ATLANTA – Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams have shattered the previous record for gubernatorial campaign fundraising in Georgia heading into Election Day next week.
The Kemp campaign and Georgians First, the governor’s leadership committee, had combined to raise $81.5 million through Oct. 25, according to the final campaign finance reports they will file with the state ahead of the Nov. 8 election.
Abrams, as she has throughout the campaign, outraised the incumbent. Her campaign and leadership committee, One Georgia, had brought in a combined $105.3 million through Oct. 25, according to reports submitted to the Georgia Government Transparency & Campaign Finance Commission.
The total for the two candidates and leadership committees – $186.8 million – is nearly four times what Kemp and Abrams raised during their first matchup in 2018.
The huge increase in campaign dollars has a lot to do with the creation of leadership committees by the General Assembly last year.
Unlike the candidates’ own campaign committees, leadership committees can raise and spend unlimited contributions on behalf of top statewide and legislative candidates.
Recipients also can accept leadership committee donations at any time of the year, including while the legislature is in session, something candidates currently holding a state elective office are not allowed to do.
Majority Republicans passed the legislation virtually along party lines, with Democrats warning that allowing unlimited campaign contributions would increase the influence of special interests in Georgia politics.
However, as Abrams’ One Georgia committee has demonstrated, Democrats are more than able to benefit from new rules they had no hand in creating.
Among other major candidates for statewide office, state Sen. Burt Jones, R-Jackson, raised $12.9 million through Oct. 25 in his bid for lieutenant governor, far ahead of the $2.5 million raised by Democratic opponent Charlie Bailey.
Republican Attorney General Chris Carr built a smaller fundraising lead over state Sen. Jen Jordan of Atlanta, his Democratic challenger. Carr’s campaign raised $4.8 million through Oct. 25, compared to Jordan’s $3.5 million.
In the race for secretary of state, Democratic state Rep. Bee Nguyen of Atlanta outraised incumbent Republican Brad Raffensperger, $3.6 million to $3 million.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – The U.S. Supreme Court ordered U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham Tuesday to testify before the Fulton County special grand jury investigating former President Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
The ruling vacated a temporary stay Associate Justice Clarence Thomas had granted Graham.
Fulton District Attorney Fani Willis subpoenaed Graham to testify about two phone calls he made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger after Democrat Joe Biden carried Georgia in route to winning the presidency over Trump.
Graham’s lawyer filed a motion to quash the subpoena, arguing the senator was shielded by the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause from being questioned about matters relating to legislative business.
As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee at the time, Graham maintained he made the calls as part of factfinding inquiries about mail-in voting and potential reforms to the process for counting Electoral College votes.
But U.S. District Judge Leigh Martin May ruled the issues Graham raised with Raffensperger were political – not legislative – in nature.
Tuesday’s ruling gave Graham wiggle room to potentially avoid answering certain questions.
“The lower courts … made clear that Senator Graham may return to the district court should disputes arise regarding the application of the Speech or Debate Clause immunity to specific questions,” the ruling stated. “Accordingly, a stay or injunction is not necessary to safeguard the senator’s Speech or Debate Clause immunity.”
Willis has subpoenaed a long list of state and federal elected leaders and other government officials since convening the special grand jury last spring.
Witnesses who have testified include Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan; Raffensperger; state Rep. Bee Nguyen, D-Atlanta, who is running against Raffensperger; Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr; state Sen. Jen Jordan, D-Atlanta, who is running against Carr; U.S. Rep. Jody Hice, R-Greensboro; and Georgia House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge.
Gov. Brian Kemp and former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows have been subpoenaed. While Meadows fights the subpoena in court, Kemp’s testimony has been delayed until after next week’s elections.
Willis had subpoenaed state Sen. Burt Jones, R-Jackson, the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor. But Jones won’t have to testify after a court ruled Willis’ hosting of a fundraiser for Democrat Charlie Bailey, Jones’ opponent, constituted a conflict of interest.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
Gov. Brian Kemp (left) with former Vice President Mike Pence Tuesday in Cumming.
CUMMING – Former Vice President Mike Pence bolstered Republican Gov. Brian Kemp’s case for reelection Tuesday during a Get Out the Vote Rally in downtown Cumming.
“We need Georgia to lead the way to a great American comeback by reelecting Brian Kemp,” Pence told cheering supporters as Kemp stood by his side.
Pence’s appearance with Kemp on the campaign trail Tuesday afternoon was one of two scheduled for Tuesday. The two also were due to speak in Gainesville later in the day.
Pence touted Kemp’s record since the governor took office in 2019.
“No governor has done more to create jobs, cut taxes … put criminals behind bars and protect the unborn,” Pence said. “Brian Kemp is singularly one of the most successful conservative governors in the United States of America.”
Kemp repeated the themes he’s been hitting for weeks on the stump, how his decision to reopen Georgia’s economy during the coronavirus pandemic ahead of other states paved the way for record low unemployment and investment.
Georgia launched its economic recovery at a time Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams and the news media were criticizing him for reopening businesses and schools too soon, Kemp said.
“We weren’t listening to [them],” he said. “We were listening to the restaurant people, the barber shops, and the cosmetologists. … I understood the pain they were feeling.”
“Georgia was the first state in America to open again,” Pence added. Governor Brian Kemp led the way.”
Pence also praised Kemp for steering a Parents’ Bill of Rights through the General Assembly, which provides a process for parents to get directly involved in their children’s education.
The former vice president called the election reform measure Georgia lawmakers passed last year with Kemp’s backing “one of the strongest election integrity bills in America.”
And Pence tied Abrams to the Biden administration, warning she would be a rubber stamp for the president if she is elected governor.
“Stacey Abrams is going to fall in line with the Biden-Harris administration that has brought inflation to a 40-year high, facilitated a wave of crime and the worst crisis on the Southern border in American history,” Pence said.
Kemp urged his supporters not to let his solid lead in the polls make them complacent with just a week left before Election Day.
“We cannot let up,” he said. “Don’t believe the polls. Don’t believe the media. We’ve got to work like we never worked before.”
Pence’s trip to Georgia came four days after former President Barack Obama traveled to Atlanta to give a boost to Abrams, U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., and the rest of Georgia’s Democratic ticket.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – The Georgia Department of Economic Development is doing a better job documenting the economic impact of the state’s film tax credit, according to a follow-up review.
But the General Assembly has not acted to cap the credit to control its growth, as a 2020 audit had recommended.
Georgia has become a filmmaking center since lawmakers enacted the tax credit. The number of film production jobs in the Peach State rose from 10,900 in 2016 to 16,500 in 2019, an increase of 51%, according to a state Department of Audits & Accounts review released Monday.
The tax credit has more than doubled since 2013, reaching $961 million in tax year 2019. It’s the state’s largest income tax credit and the largest film incentive in the country.
While state policymakers cheered the jobs and economic impact the film tax credit was generating, the 2020 audit suggested a need for additional information to properly assess the costs and benefits of the credit both for decisionmakers and the general public.
The General Assembly passed legislation last year that provides for economic analyses of tax benefits, including credits, deductions, and exemptions. The bill also tightened rules governing how film companies transfer or sell unused tax credits to other businesses, a common practice for production groups that conduct part of their movie-making work outside Georgia.
Efforts were made this year to cap the credit. But a cap of $900 million per year the state Senate Finance Committee approved fell by the wayside before final passage of a broader tax cut bill.
Since the 2020 audit, the Department of Economic Development has focused on direct spending by production companies rather reporting on the tax credit’s total economic impact, the review noted.
The state agency also no longer includes industry-wide job totals in its annual press releases on film production spending. However, it has still attributed wages that are unrelated to credit spending, the review found.
Film tax credit provisions also have not been changed to reduce economic benefits flowing to other states.
The 2020 audit noted that most states incentivize hiring residents over nonresidents, but Georgia does not. As such, nonresidents and out-of-state vendors can provide services within the state, and the expenditures qualify for the credit.
However, that shortcoming is being addressed by legislation the General Assembly passed in 2020 requiring audits for all film projects receiving the credits. While expenditures for nonresident wages and out-of-state vendors are still eligible for the credit, the audits are expected to reduce ineligible expenditures for work performed outside the state.
The economic development agency generally agreed with or had no comment on the review’s findings.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (Photo by Beau Evans)
ATLANTA – Early voting turnout in Georgia soared past 1.5 million during the weekend, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger reported Monday.
Early voting has been setting records daily since the early voting period began two weeks ago, surging well past the turnout ahead of the last midterm election in 2018 and coming close to the early voting turnout before the presidential election two years ago.
“We encourage every eligible voter to get their ballot in this week,” Raffensperger said. “Most counties have multiple early voting locations open to serve the demand.”
Nearly 116,000 voters cast early ballots on Saturday and Sunday.
Meanwhile, absentee ballots have begun to come in in larger numbers after a much slower pace than 2020. As of Monday morning, 155,104 absentee ballots had been returned to county election offices. Only 1,054 ballots had been rejected statewide, and those voters receive cure notices explaining how they can cure any discrepancy.
Early voting turnout is expected to increase during the last week of the early voting period, which ends this Friday. To find early voting locations and hours in your county, visit the secretary of state’s My Voter Page.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
