by Ty Tagami | Jul 14, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — The campaigns of the two announced Republicans for Georgia’s U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Jon Ossoff are disclosing similar amounts of outside campaign money raised.
The unofficial reports from the two GOP candidates, U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter, R-St. Simons, and John King, Georgia’s elected insurance and safety fire commissioner, had Carter slightly ahead of King in drawing money from donors. But both of their campaign accounts were dwarfed by incumbent Ossoff, the most prodigious fundraiser in the Senate.
Ossoff’s campaign announced raising more than $10 million over the three months from April through June, ending the second quarter with $15.5 million in the bank.
The Federal Election Commission filing deadline is not until Tuesday, but a source close to the Carter campaign said the congressman will be reporting that he raised $1.1 million from donors and loaned himself another $2 million.
King’s campaign said he had raised $518,000 plus another $150,000 for his political action committee, or PAC. King also reportedly rolled another $350,000 from his state election campaign funds into that PAC, bringing his total haul to about $1 million.
Carter and King will spend some of their money battling each other for the Republican nomination, but so far Ossoff has drawn no Democratic challengers and can continue amassing his war chest for the 2026 general election.
by Ty Tagami | Jul 14, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — The public reaction to the meltdown of a financial institution connected to Republican politics in Georgia continued Monday as Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger called on campaign finance recipients to return any contributions from First Liberty Building and Loan or the family that controlled it.
“Now is the time for every elected official, candidate, or political action committee who received financial support from this entity currently under investigation to stand up and help the victims,” Raffensperger said. “Ill-gotten gains do not belong in the State Capitol.”
The federal Securities and Exchange Commission sued the institution last week alleging it had operated as a Ponzi scheme, bilking investors.
The complaint in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia said Edwin Brant Frost IV, owner and president of First Liberty, used investor funds to make more than $570,000 in political donations.
The company raised at least $140 million from about 300 investors, telling them that their money would go toward short-term, high-interest, small business loans, the lawsuit said. Frost, who is also a named defendant, misrepresented the success of the loan program to his investors, the suit said, noting that he also used their money to pay himself and his family at least $5 million.
Frost’s son, Brant Frost V, is chairman of the Coweta County Republican Party.
“We take allegations of financial fraud seriously, especially when it puts hardworking Georgians at risk,” Raffensperger said, urging anyone who lost money in a transaction with First Liberty to contact his office immediately. “If you believe you’ve been misled or victimized by First Liberty, we need to hear from you.”
by Ty Tagami | Jul 9, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — People who want to influence Georgia’s next elections have already poured millions of dollars into the 2026 governor’s race and other statewide campaigns.
Campaign finance reports filed by the midnight deadline Tuesday show Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and Attorney General Chris Carr had each attracted about $3 million from donors for their respective gubernatorial campaigns for the first half of the year.
However, Jones exploited a 2021 state law to bolster his campaign by another $10 million. That boost from his own pocket to his WBJ Leadership Committee — he is an executive in a family-owned oil company — put him far ahead of Carr, not to mention the Democrats in contention.
The Republican-sponsored law allows Georgia’s governor and lieutenant governor to raise unlimited sums in leadership committees. Only a handful of others, including leading lawmakers from both parties and the winners of the gubernatorial and lieutenant governor primaries, enjoy the same advantage.
On the Democratic side, former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and state Sen. Jason Esteves, a former member of the Atlanta school board, had each raised just more than $1 million. State Rep. Derrick Jackson from Tyrone raised less than a tenth as much.
Carr’s decision to run for governor has led two Republican state senators to contest his seat. Bill Cowsert from Athens and Brian Strickland from McDonough had each raised about half a million dollars. Cowsert brought in about $100,000 more than Strickland, netting $531,000. No Democrat reported raising money for that race.
Jones’ bid for governor has led four state senators to raise money to campaign for lieutenant governor. As in the governor’s contest, Republicans held a commanding lead.
Steve Gooch, a Dahlonega Republican who recently stepped down as the Senate’s majority leader, raised $1 million. John F. Kennedy of Macon, who outranked Gooch as the Senate’s president pro tempore until he also stepped down, raised $819,000. And Sen. Blake Tillery, R-Vidalia, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, gathered $759,000.
Tillery has not yet formally announced his bid for lieutenant governor, but his campaign said that will happen in the coming weeks.
The only Democrat to raise six figures for the lieutenant governor’s contest was Sen. Josh McLaurin of Sandy Springs, who drew $118,000 in contributions.
by Ty Tagami | Jul 9, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – About 66,000 Georgians will get cancer this year, and 19,000 of them will die.
That sobering estimate by the American Cancer Society explains why state lawmakers decided to study the disease this summer in an attempt to reduce the rate.
“We are above the average for the nation,” Dr. Jorge Cortes, director of the Georgia Cancer Center at Augusta University, told legislators assembled at his university Wednesday. Cortes said Georgians are getting – and dying from – lung, prostate, breast and colorectal cancer at rates exceeding the national average.
Cancer is the second leading cause of death in Georgia, according to testimony from the state Department of Community Health (DCH). It is the number one killer of people ages 1-19, said Dr. Doug Graham, chief of the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.
What can lawmakers do about it?
For one thing, they can knock down barriers to cancer screening.
At prior hearings of the House Study Committee on Cancer Care Access in May and June, they learned that cancer care is hard to come by in rural areas, as the medical payments system squeezes smaller service providers. Rising costs and inadequate transportation contribute to lack of access to care.
The later cancer is detected, the deadlier it gets. It also becomes costlier to treat, driving up health-care costs for everyone.
Lawmakers heard repeatedly about how medical industry consolidation is exacerbating lack of access by forcing patients to drive farther to find a specialist.
Dr. Harsha Vyas, who has a small medical office in Dublin, asked study committee members to address what he sees as a systemic problem in the pharmaceutical and insurance industries: pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs.
“They’re middlemen in the health-care system created by insurance companies,” Vyas said. “They dictate all sorts of things they shouldn’t be dictating. … Just three PBMs control 80% of the drug market in the country. If that’s not monopoly, I don’t know what else is.”
Vyas said insurers have too much control over what doctors prescribe though a system called pre-authorization, and he said reimbursement rates for clinics like his are too low.
“We need to keep them accountable,” he said. “I can’t call them to the table. “You guys can, and you’ve got to ask them the tough questions.”
No insurance companies were represented at Wednesday’s hearing, but a DCH staffer explained how Medicaid is managed in Georgia through contracts with management companies.
Graham, from Children’s Healthcare, said cancer in children is connected with genetic syndromes, birth defects and maternal age. But there are other correlations that are within parents’ control: breastfeeding and maternal vitamins are associated with reduced child cancer risk.
Rep. Lee Hawkins, R-Gainesville, the committee’s chairman, said he and other lawmakers are working on drug pricing and other issues. He wrapped up the committee’s listening tour by saying the General Assembly will continue to study cancer care access.
“I think we’re just at the beginning and scratching the surface of what we can do,” he said.
by Ty Tagami | Jul 8, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Dwan Maurice Hewlett must have thought he was about to make a lucrative deal when he drove to an Athens gas station.
His car was filled with fentanyl and other drugs, in baggies ready to go.
Instead, he wound up sprinting down the road, in a hapless attempt to evade police officers.
A confidential informant had lured Hewlett, 41, to the location on Danielsville Road on behalf of the Athens-Clarke County Police Department, said William R. “Will” Keyes, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia.
“Cases like this highlight the strong collaboration between our office and our local, state and federal law enforcement partners,” Keyes said.
Hewlett, also known as “LA,” was sentenced Monday to serve 420 months in prison to be followed by 10 years of supervised release. He was found guilty at trial in February of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine, fentanyl and cocaine, not to mention actual possession with intent to distribute plus a couple of counts involving firearms.
The man from Hull on the northeast edge of Athens had a .380 pistol under his driver’s seat. Officers also recovered baggies with drugs ready to go: 133.51 grams of fentanyl, 58.31 grams of methamphetamine, 9.783 grams of cocaine and 16 grams of cocaine base.
A search of cell phones that Hewlett had in the car revealed drug-related messages and photos, indicating that he was conspiring to distribute two kilograms of fentanyl just days prior to his arrest, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. Hewlett had three prior convictions in the Clarke County Superior Court in cases involving drugs and firearms.
When Hewlett pulled into that gas station, Athens-Clarke officers boxed his vehicle in and exited their undercover vehicles wearing “POLICE” marked body armor.
After they told Hewlett to get out of his car, he reached under his seat and then sort of complied. He left his car, but ignored the cops, taking off on foot. He couldn’t outrun them, though.
“This armed career criminal will no longer be selling the dangerous drug fentanyl in our community,” Athens-Clarke County Police Chief Jerry Saulters said.
