The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Kemp donor joins panel investigating ’18 campaign of Abrams
Gov. Brian Kemp has appointed one of his frequent campaign donors to the state ethics commission as it continues to investigate the 2018 campaign of Democrat Stacey Abrams, his potential opponent in November’s general election.
Kemp picked Atlanta attorney David Burge to replace Eric Barnum, whose term expired. Barnum had the distinction of being the only member of the ethics panel to make campaign contributions to Abrams.
Burge served as a GOP member of the Fulton County Board of Elections and was a delegate to the 2008 Republican National Convention.
An Atlanta Journal-Constitution review of campaign reports shows Burge has contributed to Kemp more than three dozen times, going back to his 2006 bid for agriculture commissioner. Most of the contributions were relatively small.
Burge also has contributed to some Democrats, including state Sens. Elena Parent of Atlanta and Kim Jackson of Stone Mountain; Jason Carter, when he ran for governor in 2014; and then-Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed.
In 2019, the ethics commission began issuing subpoenas seeking bank records and other documents from Abrams’ campaign and affiliated groups as part of an investigation into whether they illegally coordinated their efforts to support her bid for governor.
Abrams’ camp says it has provided thousands of documents to the commission and that the panel was seeking records that either didn’t exist or should have no bearing on its case.
One of the groups, Gente4Abrams (People for Abrams), was fined $50,000 by the state ethics commission in 2020 for failing to report what it spent to help her win the Democratic primary.
The group spent $240,000 for canvassing, social media posts, and print and radio advertising to help Abrams win the primary but didn’t report what it spent or where it got the money to pay for those efforts, the commission said.
It later registered with the state and reported spending about $685,000 more to help the Democrat in her unsuccessful general election campaign against Kemp.