GA Dems sue to overturn law allowing unlimited campaign cash, saying it ‘unfairly’ helps GOP

Georgia Democrats have filed a federal lawsuit over Gov. Brian Kemp and other’s ability to raise unlimited political contributions and then spend that money on behalf of any political cause.

The lawsuit filed on Thursday asks a judge to declare a 2021 law that created leadership committees as unconstitutional because it unfairly gives unlimited fundraising powers to some people but not others.

The lawsuit asks that the judge put a preliminary injunction in place to freeze fundraising and spending under the law while the suit moves toward trial.

In the lawsuit, it said: “A leadership committee not only may accept unlimited contributions, but it also may make unlimited expenditures benefitting the incumbent chairperson’s candidacy (or any candidate of his or her choosing), without such spending counting as a contribution to the incumbent candidate or his campaign committee.”

“This unequal treatment gives incumbent candidates who chair leadership committees a significant competitive advantage over other candidates running in the same election or over other candidates that are running against the preferred candidate of a chair of a leadership committee. There is no compelling, important, substantial, or legitimate state interest that justifies such patent discrimination against these challenger candidates,” the lawsuit continues.

If an injunction were to be put in place, it could limit how much money Kemp and others can raise and spend on legislative races this fall.

So far, Kemp has pledged that his leadership committee will raise and spend $1.5 million to support Republican incumbents and try to defeat some Democratic ones.

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Right now, legislative candidates are limited to raising $3,300 apiece for a primary and general election from contributors, and $1,800 apiece for runoffs after the primary and general. That means candidates can raise between $3,300 and $10,200 depending on how many elections are held.

But leadership committees can raise and spend unlimited sums on behalf of any candidate, coordinating directly with the candidate’s campaign. They can also raise money while the state legislature is in session, while traditional candidate committees must turn away contributions during that time. The 2021 law allows the governor and lieutenant governor, opposing major party nominees, and Democratic and Republican caucuses in both the state House and Senate to form leadership committees.

Jen Jordan, a former state senator who lost a 2022 race for attorney general, said the law really benefits Republicans in power, saying “it adds steroids to the advantages of incumbency.”

The measure was widely seen as aimed at helping Kemp get reelected without having to rely on the state Republican Party. Kemp has had rocky relations with the party apparatus, in part because he and Donald Trump have feuded. Kemp’s Georgians First Leadership Committee raised $43.6 million to support his 2022 reelection campaign, although Democrat Stacey Abrams, who lost to Kemp by a healthy margin, actually outraised Kemp, in part because of money raised by Abrams’ own leadership committee.

But state law requires losing party nominees like Abrams to shut down their leadership committees after their loss. Kemp and Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, a fellow Republican, were allowed to keep raising money and could transfer those contributions to other political committees.

Kemp has raised $8.7 million since 2022 and has transferred $1 million to a federal political action committee he created. He could transfer more money to a federal committee if he chooses to run for senator in 2026, or to the committee of the next Republican nominee for governor. That could be Jones, who could also transfer cash from his lieutenant governor committee to a committee backing a run for governor.

“You can’t have a system or a scheme set up where really you have one set of candidates that are able to circumvent the system in terms of any restrictions on contributions and giving and also expenditures, said Jordan, a lawyer handling the suit for the Democratic Party.

Cody Hall, a spokesperson for Kemp’s political organization, declined comment, saying lawyers were still reviewing the suit.

The law has faced earlier challenges from Abrams and from former U.S. Sen. David Perdue, who lost badly to Kemp in a 2022 Republican primary challenge. In those cases, a federal judge temporarily crimped Kemp’s ability to raise and spend money from the leadership committee but didn’t overturn the law. Jordan said this lawsuit is different, arguing that the measure violates party members’ First Amendment rights of free speech and free association under the U.S. Constitution and their 14th Amendment rights to be treated equally.

“If you have one side that is allowed to collect unlimited amounts of money in order to influence political campaigns while the other side is handcuffed, the U.S. Supreme Court has been very clear that violates free speech and association rights of anyone who doesn’t share or have the same ability to do that,” Jordan said.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

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