The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Donations
public from clearly hearing what he was saying.
Gooch responded by saying “it sets a terrible precedent” to allow elected officials or groups to accept contributions during a session. His amendment, he said, “closes a loophole in Georgia law.”
State lawmakers for decades have been banned from taking campaign contributions from lobbyists and special interests during the session. Long ago, the General Assembly said it looked bad for a lawmaker to take a check at the same time he or she is considering legislation or funding that the donor may be trying to get approved or killed.
But caucus funds that raise money to support GOP candidates, such as the House Republican Trust and its Senate counterpart, are legally allowed to take money during sessions. The Senate fund, however, in recent years stopped raising money during the session after a change in the chamber’s rules prohibited it.
The House Republican caucus has continued to raise money during the session, and House Republicans have not sought the kind of prohibition Gooch proposed.
SB 221 — which is awaiting Kemp’s signature — would let a governor, lieutenant governor, a party’s nominee for either of those positions, and House and Senate Republican and Democratic leaders create such committees, which would raise money either for their own races or to try to affect other contests.
Statewide candidates are allowed to raise about $18,000 per election cycle if they make a runoff — $7,100 in legislative races — from individual donors.
Limits on how much donors could give to the committees would not apply, nor do they for caucus trusts. So contributors — typically lobbyists, industry associations or businesses interested in legislation or state funding — can give as much as they like.
Old-timers at the Capitol remember when lobbyists seeking to pass legislation could go onto the legislative chamber floors or into anterooms and buttonhole lawmakers. Back in the day, lawmakers regularly held fundraisers during the session.
In the early 1990s, lawmakers made it illegal for lobbyists and others to give campaign contributions to legislators during the session because, besides the possibility for corruption, it just didn’t look good.
But what went unsaid was that caucus trusts and other groups involved in the political process could still legally receive donations during the session, and they accept “dark money” — money where donors aren’t disclosed.
A review of campaign contribution reports last week by The Atlanta Journal-constitution showed over the past five years, the House and Senate GOP caucus funds — which are controlled by House and Senate leadership — reported receiving more than $300,000 during legislative sessions, including big money from businesses and associations who had lobbyists working on bills during those sessions. The Senate trust has since discontinued the practice, and most of the $300,000 has flowed to the House Republican group.
Unless Gooch’s amendment wins final passage, the new leadership committees would likewise be able to solicit and take unlimited contributions from lobbyists and special interests during the session.