ATLANTA (AP) — The biggest mystery in Georgia politics right now is: Who paid the price for the attack on Republican Lt. Gov. Bert Jones?
Some under the name “Georgia Integrity” have spent about $5 million on television ads, mailers and text messages. The attacks allege that Jones, who has been endorsed by President Donald Trump when he runs for governor next year, has been using his office to his advantage.
For any Georgian willing to watch a football game, these ads have been almost unavoidable since Thanksgiving. It’s the first shot in a public battle for the Republican nomination that will be settled in May’s primaries. But the ads also show how dark money shapes politics not just at the national level but in the states, with secretive interests pouring huge sums of money into trying to sway public opinion.
Jones’ campaign was furious, threatening legal action against the network if it didn’t stop airing ads that lawyers called “manifestly false” and defamatory.
To this day, the ads are still airing.
“They wanted anonymity, spent a lot of money and made up a lot of lies about me and my family,” Jones told WSB-AM on Dec. 16, calling the ads “fabricated garbage.”
Jones’ main rivals for the Republican nomination, Attorney General Chris Kahl and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, said they were not involved in the attack. All three are hoping to succeed Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who is barred from running again due to term limits. There are also multiple Democrats vying for the state’s top office.
Black money moves on
The Georgia Republican Party has filed a complaint with the state Ethics Commission. Republicans claimed the ads violated Georgia’s campaign finance laws, which prohibit election spending without registering and disclosing donors.
“I think there are far-reaching consequences for allowing this kind of activity to proceed unchecked,” state Republican Party Chairman Josh McKoon told The Associated Press. “The consequences are much broader than the results of the May primary.”
Shanna Ports, senior counsel at the Washington, D.C.-based Campaign Legal Center, said it was a further filter on the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United ruling, which led to a significant increase in independent spending in U.S. elections. The center aims to reduce the influence of money in politics.
“Dark money is becoming more prevalent in campaigns, up and down the ballot, and early on,” Portes said.
Claims that Jones engaged in self-dealing are not new — Carr has been launching similar attacks for months. But things escalated after Integrity Georgia incorporated in Delaware on Nov. 24, according to state corporate records. The entity positions itself as a nonprofit social welfare organization under federal tax law, a popular way of organizing campaign spending that allows groups to hide their donors.
The Jones campaign said the ad falsely led viewers to believe Jones enabled the government to seize land through eminent domain to help support his family’s interest in massive data center development south of Jones’ hometown of Atlanta. As a state senator, Jones did vote for a 2017 law that carved out a narrow exception in Georgia law prohibiting the government from transferring property seized through condemnation proceedings to private developers. But eminent domain rights were not used to benefit the $10 billion development, which could include 11 million square feet (1 million square meters) of data centers, government documents show.
Group records are a dead end
Georgians for Integrity listed its local address in some documents submitted to the station as a mailbox for an office supply store in east Atlanta. The newspapers also listed a media buyer named Alex Roberts with an address in Park City, Utah, but he has not responded to an email from The Associated Press. Columbus, Ohio attorney Kimberly Land also doesn’t appear on the incorporation documents. After weeks of heavy spending, no one can prove who provided the cash.
Republicans claim Georgians for Integrity is an independent commission required by Georgia law. This means it can raise and spend an unlimited amount of money but must register before accepting donations and must disclose its donors.
But the law states that such committees “expend funds either for the purpose of influencing the outcome of an election for any elected office or to promote the election or defeat of any particular candidate.” The ad targeting Jones never indicates he is running for governor or mentions the 2026 election, but instead urges viewers to call Jones and “tell Bert to stop profiting from taxpayers.”
But McCune said these were “semantic games” and ordinary voters would surely think the ads were meant to influence them.
“If you’re funding information designed to influence an election — and I think it’s unbelievable to think that’s not the case here — then you should be required to comply with the campaign finance laws that the Legislature sees fit to pass,” McCune said.
