Nominees for governor in Georgia will have a new weapon to wield this fall, with state-sanctioned super PACs permitted to raise unlimited funds and coordinate with candidate campaigns.
As an incumbent, Republican Gov. Brian Kemp already has access to what Georgia law refers to as a state leadership PAC. Georgians First could provide Kemp with a distinct advantage over his primary challenger, former Sen. David Perdue. Both Republicans are supported by outside groups. But through a state law he enacted, only Kemp has the backing of a political action committee that can raise unlimited funds and coordinate with his 2022 campaign.
And as of the conclusion of the May 24 Georgia primary election, so will Democrat Stacey Abrams, a national fundraising powerhouse. Abrams is the putative Democratic nominee for governor, and under Georgia law, upon being nominated for state office she is treated like an incumbent and empowered to stand up a state-sanctioned super PAC that can raise unlimited funds and coordinate with her gubernatorial campaign — and any other Democratic campaign she chooses.
Republicans are on track for big gains in the midterm elections nationally, and GOP insiders are not worried about these state leadership PACs will boost Abrams’s bid to win the governor’s mansion and elect Democrats down the ballot in Georgia. After all, Republicans can use these groups the same way and for the same purposes. Indeed, some Republicans believe the advent of state leadership PACs is leveling the playing field with Abrams’s extensive network of allied groups.
“The thought behind the state super PAC legislation was that it would give Republicans a fair shot at competing with Stacey’s money machine,” said Chip Lake, a Republican operative in Georgia advising Republican Senate candidate Gary Black. “Sure a state super PAC makes things easier for Stacey, but it also makes fundraising more equitable for the governor.”
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Or, should he win the Republican primary, Perdue. However, Perdue is suing in federal court to overturn the law, with a hearing scheduled for Jan. 31.
The former senator’s lawyers are arguing that it’s unconstitutional to have different campaign contributions for candidates competing in the same race. Kemp and supporters reject that characterization of the law, claiming the statute has equalized fundraising for incumbents holding state office because they alone are prohibited from raising money while the legislature is in session in Atlanta.
A spokesperson for the Perdue campaign scoffed at the governor’s position.
“Kemp changed Georgia law in an attempt to rig this race in his favor,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “He gave himself a massive fundraising advantage and is able to fully coordinate with his so-called leadership committee that he chairs, while challengers like Perdue play by different rules. That’s unconstitutional and corrupt.”
Some Republicans in Georgia worry the creation of these state-sanctioned super PACs will backfire on the GOP, largely because of the intractable fallout they expect from what has quickly become a historically bitter and divisive gubernatorial primary campaign between Kemp and Perdue.
Perdue announced his campaign for governor in early December after months of assuring Kemp, his longtime ally, that he would back his reelection and spurn efforts by former President Donald Trump to lure him into the race.
Perdue was swiftly endorsed by Trump and made the heart of his campaign the former president’s charge that Kemp sat by idly while President Joe Biden was fraudulently awarded Georgia’s 16 electoral votes. Similarly, Perdue blames the governor for his 2020 loss to now-Sen. Jon Ossoff, a Democrat. Kemp denies the accusations from both Trump and Perdue, and his campaign has responded with guns blazing, sometimes criticizing the former senator, other times blatantly mocking him.
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Some Republicans fret that unity after a family feud of this magnitude is impossible and fear the benefits of the state-sanctioned super PAC will amount to nothing, regardless of who is the party’s nominee for governor. Meanwhile, Abrams and the Democrats will be rowing in the same direction and use the new groups to lift their party up and down the ticket.
“Republicans are fighting each other,” a Georgia GOP strategist said. “Sadly, the party might have handed Stacey Abrams the key to a well-funded campaign that will end Republican dominance.”
Original location: Free-spending outside groups could have big effect on Georgia governor’s race
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