Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams reportedly will face an investigation from a state Senate committee regarding her ties to voter registration nonprofit New Georgia Project.

The probe follows the New Georgia Project agreeing to pay a $300,000 fine issued by the State Ethics Commission.

From the Associated Press:

Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and other Republicans say they want to further examine recent ethics findings that voter participation group New Georgia Project improperly coordinated with Abrams’ 2018 campaign for governor. They also want to probe claims by new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin that $2 billion was improperly given to a coalition of groups trying to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. Abrams worked with one of the groups until the end of last year.

“Don’t you think that, that deserves looking into, because I do,” Jones told reporters Friday, after a resolution to allow the expansion was introduced in the Senate.

Abrams said in a statement that Republicans are targeting her because they don’t like her.

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“Georgia Republicans are so terrified of the power of the people, they’re lashing out with unfounded attacks and baseless investigations that waste taxpayer dollars,” Abrams said. “Working across the state, I registered and turned out thousands of Georgians. I proudly led work to lower energy prices in the poorest region of the state.”

Abrams, the former state House minority leader, vaulted to national Democratic stardom when she came close to defeating Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in 2018. She parlayed voting rights after that election into a national platform and even consideration as Joe Biden’s running mate in 2020, but lost a 2022 governor’s race rematch to Kemp by a broader margin. Her involvement with Rewiring America, a group promoting clean energy and electrification, is just one of Abrams’ roles, which include writing books and pursuing entrepreneurial ventures.

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Per Georgia Recorder:

The New Georgia Project agreed to pay a $300,000 fine as part of a state ethics commission settlement agreement for committing 16 campaign finance violations, including failing to register as an independent committee and not disclosing about $4.2 million in contributions and $3.2 million in expenditures.

The Senate resolution says the special committee will examine whether current state laws on campaign finance and nonprofits fail to address the “legal and fiscal issues raised by the alleged and admitted conduct of multiple organizations with connections to Stacey Abrams.”

Abrams created the New Georgia Project to focus on registering more Black and other non-white Georgians to vote, earning her national recognition for her work for growing the state’s electorate and boosting engagement among disaffected voters. She has not been affiliated with New Georgia Project since shortly before her 2018 campaign, when she narrowly lost to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp. Abrams lost by a wider margin in a 2022 rematch with Kemp.

The Senate resolution would also allow the committee to investigate a $2 billion grant awarded in 2024 to an environmental organization “with ties to Abrams.”

In a PolitiFact post published Wednesday, the Poynter Institute disputed allegations on social media that Abrams committed fraud during the awarding of the Environmental Protection Agency grant allocated for energy-efficient housing across the country.

The clean grant was awarded to Power Forward Communities, a coalition of groups like United Way, Habitat for Humanity International and Rewiring America, a national electrification nonprofit that Abrams served as senior counsel for from March 2023 until the end of 2024.

 

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