Kemp, Carr, Jones and Dooley - Irony, or Complete Hypocrisy in Georgia's Midterms?

Kemp Family Members Apparently Profiting from Dooley Campaign

In January of 2024, in an article entitled, “Brian Kemp's Private Political Party Financed Under SB221 Must be Shut Down,” I wrote informing you of a major dark money operation set in motion during the 2021 Georgia General Assembly. The purpose of that operation is to enhance the political power and viability of certain of this state’s highest elected officials, namely the governor, lieutenant governor, as well as caucus leaders of both parties in the Georgia Legislature. The bill under discussion is SB221, creating “leadership committees” for the aforementioned public officials.

Leadership committees are a special breed of political action committee, or “PAC,” that can legally receive UNLIMITED AMOUNTS OF MONEY contributed by virtually anyone, or by any “legal person,” including corporations and LLC’s, whose owners and controllers remain anonymous, and possibly situated outside of the United States.

One of those office holders not aided politically by the SB221 legal money-laundering operation, and who is thereby mad about it, is Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, now running for governor and suing present Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones. Jones was a state senator at the time SB221 passed, and who was among only three upper chamber Republicans to vote AGAINST the bill.

AG Carr is upset because Jones has the added advantage of collecting as much money as he can, from virtually anyone, anywhere in the world, which incidentally could even include countries like communist China, to aid in his campaign to become Governor of Georgia, while Carr has no such slush fund. Here is what Chris Carr had to say about that, on a recent social media video:

Irony or Hypocrisy?

So, Burt Jones, Lieutenant Governor, VOTED AGAINST leadership committees, and now gets to use one to the utmost, while Chris Carr DEFENDED leadership committees and now doesn’t get to use one unless and until he becomes the Republican nominee for that office, defeating Jones and all his money. Is this just IRONY, or is it complete HYPOCRISY, on both of their parts?

Now, argues Chris Carr, it is illegal for Burt Jones to use his leadership committee for any office other than the one in which he presently sits, until he becomes the party nominee. Perhaps.

However, SB221 was written with obvious loopholes which allow Jones, or anyone in Jones’ position, to maintain their political advantages. I say that because SB221 provides for the manager of leadership committee funds, in this case Jones, to at any time he decides, transfer all those millions to a political support vehicle more suitable for his evolving political purposes, including the prospect of starting a PAC outside of his leadership committee, legally laundering those funds over to that PAC, and receiving financial benefits for his gubernatorial campaign from that “legally allowed” source instead.

According to SB221, Burt Jones may do one or all of the following with any “excess” funds held by his leadership committee:

1. Donate the funds to charity;

2. Donate the funds to a non-profit organization subject to certain limitations;

3. Transfer the funds to a political party or another candidate;

4. Give the money back to the original contributors;

5. Transfer the funds to a future Lt. Governor candidate;

6. Repay himself for personal funds expended in his political campaign;

7. Transfer the funds to a PAC of his choice.

Reading directly from the bill, once the Lieutenant Governor’s needs for funds in his present office are exhausted, he is allowed WITHOUT LIMITATION to transfer those funds to a PAC purposed to support other purposes, to include Jones’ gubernatorial candidacy.

So, it looks like Chris Carr is out of luck. He is spending precious campaign resources to sue his opponent for something Carr knows Jones can easily sidestep. That is how we know Carr’s statements are simply campaign rhetoric. Frankly, it is hard to have pity for the Attorney General. Notwithstanding his weak positions on election integrity, were the situation reversed leaving him with the advantage, we all know Chris Carr would not be giving all that money away to charity. Of course not. Carr would be using those funds to the utmost, just like Jones is.

But that is why SB221 must be repealed, or at least severely disabled. That law allows Georgia’s highest elected officials to legally launder dark money, eliciting funds which could originate from virtually anywhere, and from anyone in the entire world, including America’s enemies. SB221 is a national security issue. No one, least of all a Georgia politician, should have such a potentially-compromising tool at their disposal.

Kemp Supporting Derek Dooley Campaign using Georgians First Leadership Committee, Kemp Family Profits

As I just reported, when a governor or lieutenant governor determines he or she has no more use for funds sitting in their dark-money, leadership committee wallet, SB221 allows that they may, “WITHOUT LIMITATION” transfer those funds to a PAC purposed to support new and different political purposes. Obviously, Burt Jones will be doing that with his leadership committee funds. And that is what Governor Brian Kemp is already doing to support the otherwise nonviable senatorial campaign of family friend, former football coach, Derek Dooley.

While the most current information is not yet available, Open Secrets reports that Governor Kemp began mobilizing his efforts to support the Dooley campaign in 2024, well before Dooley even announced, transferring $950K from Georgian’s First to Hardworking Americans, Inc., a PAC set up just for Dooley.

Note that the Treasurer of Hardworking Americans…

…is also the Treasurer of Georgians First Leadership Committee:

So, get the big picture here. SB221, a so-called “governor’s bill,” thereby formulated and signed into law by Brian Kemp in 2021, is presently financing the campaign of an otherwise infeasible senatorial candidate, the failed and formerly apolitical (and many say Democrat) football coach Derek Dooley, to run as a Kemp-styled RINO Republican against another Democrat, incumbent John Ossoff. Either way, should Dooley win the Republican senate nomination, it appears the Democrats could effectively control that seat.

Kemp Family Members Financially Benefit from Hardworking Americans PAC

And spearheading the Hardworking Americans fundraising campaign for Coach Derek, we are told is Governor Kemp’s daughter Amy. Amy is thereby entitled to drop her dad’s name during her solicitations, earning substantial commissions to elicit funds from a catalogue of known Georgian’s First Leadership Committee contributors, as well as scores of fellow “never Trumpers,” which as I reported over a year and a half ago, could include the same anonymous donors as those behind these out-of-state entities and more:

From the Hardworking Americans website, we see Governor Kemp lacing up his boots.

But, of course, Hardworking Americans PAC is not authorized by poster child Kemp’s designated senatorial candidate, Derek Dooley. Any apparent political connection must be pure coincidence.

What Happens to Kemp in 2027?

Now, once Kemp is (finally) gone from office, the then former governor will have no job, and no visible means of support. I understand wife Marty’s family, historically Democrat, has the money. Remember, when Kemp was elected governor he brought with him business bankruptcy debt of approximately a half million dollars. Somehow that debt miraculously disappeared along about the time he appointed billionairess Kelly Loeffler, wife of Jeffery Sprecher, owner of the New York Stock Exchange, to the late Johnny Isakson’s US Senate seat. Word on the street lays odds that once 70-year old UGA President Jere Morehead tenders a timely retirement notice, Kemp would be tapped by his own appointees to assume the university’s presidency, the contracted appointment date to take effect shortly after Georgia’s next governor is sworn in.

You see, this is how politicians work. This is how they think, always looking for a next gig and a way to personally, and financially, benefit from public office. Derek Dooley, by himself, is not a viable candidate for senator. With Kemp’s endorsement and money, he hopes to compete.