District Judge sides with Burt Jones in campaign finance dispute in race for Georgia governor

A U.S. District Court judge said Lt. Gov. Burt Jones can continue raising money through a leadership committee in response to a lawsuit from Attorney General Chris Carr.

Carr contended that Jones' ability to raise money through the committee gave him an unfair advantage in the race for Georgia's governor. State law allows the lieutenant governor to establish a committee that "may accept contributions or make expenditures for the purpose of affecting the outcome of any election of advocating for the election or defeat of any candidate."

The committee does not have a limit on contributions and is separate from a candidate's campaign committee.

Carr said Jones' ability to raise money through the committee was a violation of his rights to freedom of speech under the First and Fourteenth Amendments and a violation of the Equal Protection Clause.

Judge Victoria Maria Calvert said while other challenges have been made to the leadership committee, Carr's is unique.

"Mr. Carr, the current Attorney General of the State of Georgia, brings this lawsuit in his personal capacity to challenge, not the constitutionality of the campaign contribution scheme itself, the LC Statute, or the enforcement of either, but his primary opponents’ reliance on the law to benefit his campaign to the detriment of Mr. Carr," Calvert wrote in the ruling. "In short, Plaintiffs ask the Court to twist itself into a logical pretzel to find that by benefiting from a law enacted to confer such a benefit, Defendants caused Plaintiffs’ injury."

Calvert said a favorable ruling for Carr would not "redress" Carr's "injury."

"Other leadership committees are just as capable of harming Plaintiffs in the same manner that Defendants purportedly do," Calvert wrote. "Further, as the Court previously explained, Plaintiffs’ true injury is caused by the campaign contribution scheme and the enforcement of it."

Calvert dismissed the case without prejudice.