Tim Echols and Fitz Johnson have taken thousands in campaign cash from industries they are responsible for overseeing

In a new AJC report on how GOP incumbents on Georgia’s Public Service Commission (PSC) have accepted thousands of dollars in campaign donations from the very industries they’re charged with regulating, Commissioner Tim Echols admitted that many of his corporate donors with business before the PSC “do support me based on how their…industry might benefit from having me in office.”

The investigation found that both incumbent GOP commissioners seeking re-election this year, Tim Echols and Fitz Johnson, “accepted contributions from executives of companies that benefited from some of the board’s most controversial decisions” – including the owner of a railroad company that won PSC approval to acquire land from mostly Black property owners in one of Georgia’s poorest rural regions despite pushback from residents, and from a power plant whose high-cost electricity the PSC required Georgia Power to buy despite increased costs for consumers.

This comes after Tim Echols said he was counting on low turnout in this year’s PSC election, saying he is “praying for torrential rain that day…Hail would be even better.”

“No regulator should be cashing checks from companies that profit off their decisions. While Georgians watch their utility bills skyrocket, public service commissioners are cozying up to the very corporations they’re supposed to oversee – it’s pay-to-play, plain and simple,” said Charlie Bailey, Chairman of the Democratic Party of Georgia. “Tim Echols and Fitz Johnson are hoping for low turnout in this election because they know their record is indefensible to voters. This is exactly why Georgians have lost faith in the Public Service Commission, and why they’ll be voting out Tim Echols and Fitz Johnson this year.”

Read highlights from the investigation below:

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Georgia utility regulators rake in cash from business interests

• Legal battles over how the state elects PSC members has delayed regular elections to the powerful-but-obscure board, but that hasn’t stopped members from raising money for their campaigns — often from businesses with a stake in their decisions.
• The incumbents have accepted contributions from executives of companies that benefited from some of the board’s most controversial decisions, from allowing a railroad to acquire properties over the objection of the owners to requiring Georgia Power to buy expensive electricity produced at wood-burning plants.
• Those contributions have helped the incumbent Republican commissioners build a commanding fundraising lead over their Democratic opponents in next month’s election.
• Critics say industry contributions suggest elected officials are beholden to the businesses they regulate.
• “It’s disappointing to see they have accepted those contributions,” said Rosario Palacios, executive director of the government watchdog group Common Cause Georgia. “We need more separation for sure.”
• Echols has raised about $980,000 in campaign cash since his last election in 2016, an Atlanta-Journal Constitution examination of campaign records shows. Johnson has raised about $473,000 since Gov. Brian Kemp appointed him to the commission four years ago. Most of their contributions have come since the state canceled the 2022 election for both incumbents.
• In a statement, Echols said he doesn’t make decisions based on those donations but said donors “do support me based on how their membership or industry might benefit from having me in office.”
• The PSC’s decisions are often controversial. Commissioners have approved six Georgia Power rate increases since the canceled 2022 election and allowed the company to charge customers for billions of dollars of cost overruns at the Vogtle nuclear power plant.
• The commission’s five members — all Republicans — serve in districts but are elected statewide by Georgia voters. Elections have been postponed in recent years.
• Amid the on-again, off-again schedule, incumbents spent money on elections that never happened. But they had no problem raising more cash — often from companies that stand to benefit from PSC decisions.
• Johnson’s top contributors include Kyle Ormsby ($15,400), chief executive of Southeast Connections, a pipeline construction firm; James Bond ($13,000), president of Public Service Telephone Company in Reynolds; and Celeste Weaver ($12,500), an executive at Ringgold Telephone Company.
• Echols’ top contributors include Lawrenceville utility construction firm Gunter Construction Co. ($23,800) and Ben Tarbutton III ($14,900), owner of Sandersville Railroad Company.
• Last year the PSC allowed the Sandersville Railroad to use the government’s eminent domain power to acquire parts of 18 Hancock County parcels over the objection of the property owners. The railroad planned to build a spur line to serve private industries, but the PSC ruled the line was in the public interest.
• Another top Echols contributor was Green Power Solutions ($22,200), which operates a Dublin wood-burning “biomass” power plant.
• Last year the PSC approved a Georgia Power plan to buy more electricity from biomass facilities. Supporters, including Echols, said the plan would create forestry and trucking jobs and tap another reliable energy source. Critics said electricity from biomass costs two to three times more than other sources — costs that would be passed along to ratepayers.
• Green Power Solutions is part of the Beasley Group, a forest products company with numerous affiliates, some of which produce biomass electricity. Echols received $43,100 from various Beasley Group companies, records show.
• In a statement, Echols said he’s “overseen many power plant and gas line construction projects” as a commissioner and acknowledged that many of his contributions come from those sectors.
• Echols made a pledge in his 2010 campaign not to take money from employees, lawyers or lobbyists from companies regulated by the agency.
• He said in his statement that he stood by that promise in 2010 and 2016 but was still criticized for the money he did accept.
• For this race, he changed course.
• [Hubbard] said the money raised by Echols and Johnson is “reflective of the entrenched moneyed interests” and called donations from for-profit companies deeply unethical.
• “They are there to look after the public interest, and if they’re being corrupted with dollars from those they regulate, meant to sway their opinion, then we don’t have a very effective or moral Public Service Commission,” he said.

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