Anonymous money fuels $5 million in attacks on Georgia’s Lt. Gov. Burt Jones

ATLANTA– It’s the biggest mystery in Georgia politics today: Who is paying for attacks on Republican Lt. Gov. Burt Jones?

Someone operating under the name “Georgians for Integrity” invested about $5 million in TV ads, mailers and text messages. The attacks claim that Jones, who already has the support of President Donald Trump for his run for governor next year, is using his office to enrich himself.

For any Georgian settling in to watch a football game, commercials have been almost unavoidable since Thanksgiving. They mark the start of the public battle for the Republican nomination that will be settled in the May primary elections. But the ads also show the extent to which dark money influences politics not only at the national level but also at the state level, with secret interests pouring in large sums of money in an effort to change public opinion.

Jones’ campaign is crazy, threatening legal action against TV networks if they don’t stop airing ads that one lawyer calls “patently false” and slanderous.

For now, the ads will continue to run.

“They want to remain anonymous, spend a lot of money and create a lot of lies about me and my family,” Jones told WSB-AM in a Dec. 16 interview, calling the ads “manufactured garbage.”

Attorney General Chris Carr and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Jones’ main rivals for the Republican nomination, say they are not involved in the attacks. All three want to succeed Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who cannot run again because of term limits. Many Democrats are also vying for the state’s highest office.

The Georgia Republican Party has filed a complaint with the State Ethics Commission. The GOP says the ads violate Georgia’s campaign finance law prohibiting campaign spending without registration or disclosure of donors.

“I think there are significant consequences to allowing this activity to continue unchecked,” state Republican Party Chairman Josh McKoon told the Associated Press. “And the consequences are much broader than the outcome of the May primaries. »

It’s another blow to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision, which led to a dramatic increase in independent spending in U.S. elections, said Shanna Ports, senior legal counsel at the Washington, D.C.-based Campaign Legal Center, which seeks to reduce the influence of money in politics.

“Dark money is increasingly becoming the norm in races, in elections and early days,” Ports said.

Claims that Jones engages in self-dealing are not new: Carr has been making similar attacks for months. But things intensified after Georgians for Integrity was incorporated in Delaware on Nov. 24, according to that state’s corporation records. The entity identifies as a nonprofit welfare organization under the federal tax code, a popular way of organizing campaign spending that allows a group to hide its donors.

The Jones campaign claims the ad falsely leads viewers to believe that Jones allowed the government to take land via eminent domain to help support his family’s interest in a massive data center development in Jones’ home county, south of Atlanta. As a state senator, Jones voted for a 2017 law that opened a narrow exception to Georgia law prohibiting governments from turning over property seized in condemnation proceedings to private developers. But eminent domain is not being used to benefit the $10 billion development that government documents show could include 11 million square feet (1 million square meters) of data centers.

Georgians for Integrity lists its local address as a mailbox at an east Atlanta office supply store on some materials submitted to television stations. A media buyer named Alex Roberts, with an address in Park City, Utah, is also listed on those papers, but he did not respond to an email from the AP. Kimberly Land, a Columbus, Ohio, attorney, is also not listed on the incorporation documents. After weeks of heavy spending, no one has been able to prove who is providing the money.

The Republican Party says Georgians for Integrity is an independent committee under Georgia law. This means it can raise and spend unlimited amounts, but must register before accepting contributions and must disclose its donors.

But that law identifies these committees as spending “funds either for the purpose of influencing the outcome of an election for elected office or to promote the election or defeat of a particular candidate.” And ads targeting Jones never identify him as a candidate for governor or mention the 2026 election, instead urging viewers to call Jones and “Tell Burt to Stop Taking Advantage of Taxpayers.”

But McKoon said these were “semantic games” and that ordinary voters would certainly think the ads are designed to influence them.

“If you’re funding a message designed to impact an election — and I think it’s hard to argue that that’s not the case here — then you should be required to comply with the campaign finance laws that the Legislature has seen fit to pass,” McKoon said.