ATLANTA (AP) — It’s the biggest mystery in Georgia politics right now: Who’s paying for the attacks on Republican Lt. Gov. Burt Jones?
Someone operating under the name “Georgians for Integrity” poured about $5 million into television ads, mailers and texts. The attacks allege that Jones, who already has the endorsement of President Donald Trump in his bid for governor next year, used his office to enrich himself.
For any Georgian who settles down to watch a football game, commercials have been almost unavoidable since Thanksgiving. They are the frontrunners in the public battle for the Republican nomination that will be decided in the May primary election. But the ads also show how dark money influences politics not only at the national level but also in states, with secret interests dropping large sums to sway public opinion.
The Jones campaign is in a frenzy, threatening legal action against TV stations if they don’t stop airing ads that a lawyer calls “provably false” and defamatory.
Until now, the ads are still running.
“They want to be 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 “fabricated 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. There are also several Democrats vying for the state’s top job.
Dark money moves on
The Republican Party of Georgia filed a complaint with the State Ethics Commission. The GOP claims the ads violate Georgia’s campaign finance law against spending on elections without registering and disclosing donors.
“I think there are far-reaching consequences for allowing this activity to continue unchecked,” Republican Party Chairman Josh McKoon told The Associated Press. “And the ramifications are much broader than the outcome of the May primary.”
It’s a further trickle down from the US Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision, which led to dramatic increases in independent spending in US elections, said Shanna Ports, senior legal counsel for the Washington, DC-based Campaign Legal Center, which seeks to reduce the influence of money in politics.
“Dark money is becoming more and more common in races, up and down, and in the beginning,” Ports said.
Claims that Jones engaged in self-dealing are nothing new — Carr has been making similar attacks for months. But things escalated after Georgians for Integrity incorporated in Delaware on Nov. 24, according to that state’s corporation records. The entity identifies itself as a nonprofit welfare organization under the federal tax code, a popular way to organize campaign spending that allows a group to hide its donors.
The Jones campaign says the ad falsely leads viewers to believe that Jones allowed the government to take land through 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 in Georgia law that prohibits governments from conveying property seized through 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 meters (1 million square feet) of data centers.
The group’s records are a dead end
Georgians for Integrity lists the local address as a PO Box at an office supply store in east Atlanta on some documents sent 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, an attorney in Columbus, Ohio, is also not listed on the articles of incorporation. After weeks of heavy spending, no one has proven who is providing the money.
The Republican Party maintains that 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 such committees as “spending funds either for the purpose of affecting the outcome of an election for any elected office or to support the election or defeat of a particular candidate.” And the ads targeting Jones never identify him as running for governor or mention the 2026 election, instead urging viewers to call Jones and “Tell Burt, stop taking advantage of the taxpayers.”
But McKoon said these are “semantic games” and that ordinary voters would surely believe the ads are designed to sway them.
“If you’re funding a message that’s designed to impact an election — and I think it’s stretching credulity to argue that’s not the case here — then you should comply with the campaign finance laws that the legislature saw fit to enact,” McKoon said.