by Ross Williams, Georgia Recorder, [This article first appeared in the Georgia Recorder, republished with permission]

November 13, 2025

Stacey Abrams’ New Georgia Project is a thing of the past, but it may still be a major topic of conversation when lawmakers gather next year for the annual legislative session

The voter engagement project founded by Stacey Abrams in 2013 announced in October that it was dissolving after the Georgia Ethics Commission concluded the organization violated state campaign finance law and charged the group a $300,000 fine, the largest fine for an ethics violation in state history.

Ethics commission executive director David Emadi said the New Georgia Project admitted to the violations after a lengthy legal process.

“They admitted they failed to register as an independent committee or super PAC,” he said. “They admitted they failed to file all required disclosure reports in the 2018 primary and general election. They admitted they failed to disclose over $4 million … They admitted failing to disclose in those reports over just over $3.2 million in political expenditures.”

Abrams, a former state House minority leader, left the group in 2017 ahead of her first run for governor in 2018, when her near-win made her a national star.

Emadi said the money was spent on items including staff, canvassers and phone bankers in offices across the state. Some of the violations were also tied to an unsuccessful 2019 MARTA expansion ballot initiative in Gwinnett County.

Emadi said Abrams may have separated from the group before her first run for governor, but investigators are still looking into whether she was coordinating with the group after officially stepping back, which would be another violation of state law.

A GOP-led panel Thursday floated ideas for legislation that members said would discourage organizations from illegally funding political candidates in the 2026 midterms and beyond.

State Sen. Bill Cowsert, an Athens Republican who chairs the Senate Special Committee on Investigations, expressed frustration at what he characterized as legal delay tactics that the New Georgia Project used in court and suggested stiffening penalties for campaign finance violations when committed by an organization.

“The candidate had the benefit of $4.2 million spent on her behalf that was illegal,” said Cowsert, who is running for attorney general next year. “And this entity, which is now probably defunct, gets fined by just getting caught at the end after a rope-a-dope, four corners defense, finally coughs up $300,000. And I don’t see where anybody was (held) accountable.”

Individual politicians who run afoul of campaign law can be made to pay fines in addition to repaying ill-gotten or misspent funds. Cowsert suggested codifying similar penalties or even jail time for members of organizations who knowingly violate the law.

“If the worst thing that can happen to you is the illegally obtained contributions you’ve got that hadn’t yet been expended get forfeited to the state, that’s not so bad,” he added. “It’s different if you’re thinking I’ve got to write you a check and pay a personal civil penalty, if you wanna call it that, or a criminal fine, or I might be going to jail.”

Cowsert also mentioned the idea of capping donations to super PACs but indicated that might run afoul of Supreme Court decisions like Citizens United.

Emadi suggested lawmakers could consider granting the ethics commission the power to question people under oath during investigations, which he said would help investigators determine whether campaigns were illegally coordinating with outside groups.

“I think if you can provide the ability to depose individuals in the course of an existing investigation, like a complaint’s been filed – and I want to be very careful. I’m not talking about an ethics commission run amok that can do whatever they want – but if there is an ethics complaint filed and we’re trying to figure out what were they coordinating or maybe there’s a third party complaint, maybe there’s some investigation happening, the ability to question people under oath before we go to a probable cause hearing,” Emadi said.

Senate Minority Leader Harold Jones blasted Thursday’s hearing as political theater.

“As Georgians face health insurance premiums that have doubled and even tripled, the Senate should not be wasting time on political persecutions that have already been fully investigated elsewhere,” the Augusta Democrat said in a statement. “Our focus must be on solving the affordability crisis, the housing crisis and the rapidly rising cost of utilities. Georgians elected us to make their lives easier, not to subject our political opponents to state-funded witch hunts.”

Emadi, who was tapped as state ethics chief by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who ran against Abrams twice, said he’s been accused of targeting the New Georgia Project for political purposes. Speaking to reporters after the hearing, he said the ethics commission doesn’t consider politics in its investigations. He gave the example of the Georgia Republican Assembly PAC, which is a right-wing group under investigation for allegedly spending more than $200,000 to influence elections for conservative candidates.

“If it’s a left group, a right group, I don’t really care,” Emadi said. “We’re prosecuting the GRA right now because we have alleged – which is an allegation at this point in the legal process – but we’ve alleged they did the same sort of activity, and I’m comfortable just doing the right thing. It’s not that hard.”

Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jill Nolin for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com.