WATCH: Georgia Democrats Announce Legal Challenge to Georgia’s Leadership Committee Law

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Today, Georgia Democrats hosted a press conference announcing a legal challenge to Georgia’s 2021 leadership committee law. The bill, SB 221, was signed into law by Kemp “without any public notification from his office.” Though Kemp is longer eligible to seek re-election as governor, this law allows him to sidestep campaign finance restrictions and continue raising money — stacking the deck in favor of his preferred political candidates or causes. 

“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,” said Jen Jordan, former State Senator and 2022 Democratic nominee for Georgia Attorney General. “What this bill does is it adds steroids to the advantages of incumbency by handing the power to these select few to ignore the campaign finance laws all together. So we are asking the federal court to intervene, and to say that it’s enough.”

“The leadership committee law is a scheme written and passed by people in power, and those hoping to one day ascend, scrapping existing campaign finance laws for a handful of people,” said Tolulope Kevin Olasanoye, Executive Director of the Democratic Party of Georgia. “So the Trump-backed Republican candidates bankrolled by Kemp, through and in coordination with Georgia First, are able to spend exponentially more than what they would have been able to spend on their races if they were limited to just the money that they were able to spend on their own. The Leadership Committee law he signed without ‘any public notification from his office’ amounts to a scheme offering campaign limits for thee, and none for me. It’s wrong, and that’s why we’ve filed this complaint.”

The lack of meaningful campaign finance limits on Kemp is especially troubling in the context of his recent spate of travel to bolster his national profile in Republican political circles. Foremost among those travel plans were this week’s trip to kiss the ring and pledge loyalty to Trump at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee — the price of access to major Republican Party funders and powerbrokers in attendance. Kemp’s future travel plans include stops in Texas, California, and Florida, where he can raise effectively unlimited money that he can transfer to his allies in the General Assembly or move to his own federal account if he runs for higher office.

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