AND IN WHOSE POCKETS DID THE LOOT FALL?
Going for Broke: Stacey Abrams’s Campaign Can’t Pay Staffers After Blowout Loss
Stacey Abrams's gubernatorial campaign can't afford to pay its employees and owes over $1 million to vendors, Axios reported Monday.
Abrams amassed over $100 million in her failed bid to unseat Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R.), but suffered cash flow issues in the final weeks of the campaign. Speaking to Axios, two-time Abrams campaign manager Lauren Groh-Wargo blamed the money problems on a "cavalcade of negative press and negative polling" in the final months of the campaign.
"We did not just lose, we got blown out," she told Axios. "It was the most sub-optimal situation to be in. And we will be dealing with that situation for some time."
The Abrams campaign has resorted to selling its donor and voter contact databases to pay down its debt, and it abruptly cut off salary payments to most of its 180 full-time staffers just one week after the November election. Former campaign staffers said they were shocked that Abrams couldn't pay their salaries after having raised so much money.
"I figured, $100 million? They should be able to pay me until December," a former Abrams staffer told Axios.
"People have told me they have no idea how they're going to pay their rent in January," said another former Abrams staffer, adding that the campaign's decision to stop paying employees "was messed up."
Squandering massive fundraising hauls is par for the course for groups associated with Abrams. The New Georgia Project, a voter registration group founded by Abrams that was tasked with expanding the non-white electorate in the Peach State, raised nearly $25 million in 2020, only to lay off half its leadership team in the weeks before the 2022 election due to a lack of funds, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
A former New Georgia Project executive told the Free Beacon that the group fired its top financial officer in late June after the officer said he couldn't do his job without violating the law. New Georgia Project is now over a month late in filing its 2021 finances to the IRS, and the charity continues to solicit donations without a license in at least nine states, opening itself up to massive fines and criminal inquiries.
Abrams also has a poor track record managing her own personal finances. During her first gubernatorial bid in 2018, she owed $54,000 in unpaid taxes to the IRS, on top of $170,000 in credit card and student loan debt. Abrams resolved those debts before launching her 2022 campaign.
Published under: 2022 Election, Brian Kemp, Campaign, Debt, Georgia, Stacey Abrams
Amid Financial Chaos, Stacey Abrams’s Nonprofit Flouts Federal Law
New Georgia Project missed crucial tax filing deadline
ATLANTA — It's been a rough few months for the New Georgia Project.
The nonprofit founded by Stacey Abrams and once helmed by Sen. Raphael Warnock (D., Ga.) dismissed most of its leadership over the summer. A former executive told the Washington Free Beacon that the group's top accountant was fired after saying he couldn’t do his job without violating the law. Now the group missed a crucial IRS filing deadline, an error that puts it on the wrong side of federal law.
Such chaos is now commonplace at the New Georgia Project, which Abrams founded in 2013 to register non-white voters in the Peach State. The group, and its affiliate New Georgia Project Action Fund, appear to have fallen into dire financial straits since the June dismissal of chief financial officer Randall Frazier. Although the groups raised a combined $37 million in 2020, their human resource director claimed in an October video call terminating three top employees that the New Georgia Project could no longer afford to pay their salaries.
The New Georgia Project's Form 990 financial disclosure, which was due to the IRS on Tuesday, would shed light into what the two groups did with their millions in 2021. The forms offer a detailed picture of a nonprofit’s finances, including how much was paid to top officials and contractors. But New Georgia Project Legal Affairs Director Tangi Bush told the Free Beacon on Wednesday that the group’s "finance department" was still preparing the disclosures. Nonprofits and charities must provide their 990s to the public within 24 hours of an in-person request.
The former executive who spoke to the Free Beacon says that the New Georgia Project's lack of staff and culture of secrecy are to blame for the groups’ missed IRS filing. Bush could not even say who works in NGP’s finance department when asked by the Free Beacon, citing a "personnel issue."
According to National Legal and Policy Center counsel Paul Kamenar, the groups’ failure to file the Form 990 on time suggests "serious financial irregularities that should be audited." With no known leadership in its accounting division, the New Georgia Project seems unable to comply with federal laws governing nonprofits, and faces potential fines or other penalties.
The New Georgia Project could also face sanctions from state authorities for failing to disclose its finances. Black Lives Matter group was temporarily barred from raising charitable funds in California and Washington in February after it failed to report its 2020 finances on time.
Abrams and Warnock are no longer affiliated with the New Georgia Project and the New Georgia Project Action Fund, although they both maintain ties with the groups’ leaders, including board chairman Francys Johnson. Warnock, who led the group from 2017 to 2019, appointed Johnson to his "Federal Nominations Advisory Commission" in March 2021. In September, he co-hosted a rally for Abrams.
The New Georgia Project worked to get both Abrams and Warnock elected this cycle, with mixed results. Abrams lost her second gubernatorial bid by nearly eight points. Warnock will face Republican challenger Herschel Walker in a December run-off after failing to earn 50 percent of the vote on Election Day.
Nolte: Stacey Abrams Raised $100M, Lost (Again), Still In Debt, Screwed Staffers
Former Governor-In-Her-Own-Mind Stacey Abrams (D-Failure) blew through $100 million, lost by more than seven points, is still in debt, and screwed her staffers just in time for the holidays.
Such a nice lady.
From the far-left Axios, minus all their goofy “why it matters” junk:
After raising more than $100 million in her second bid to be Georgia governor, the Stacey Abrams campaign owes more than $1 million in debt to vendors, two-time campaign manager Lauren Groh-Wargo confirmed to Axios.
Abrams has been heralded for her fundraising prowess and had brought in donations at a presidential level earlier in the year. But money became so tight that most of the 180 full-time staffers were given an abrupt paycheck cutoff date — just a week after the November election.
“People have told me they have no idea how they’re going to pay their rent in January,” one former staffer told Axios. “It was more than unfortunate. It was messed up.”
How do you blow through $100 million in a state with only 10 million people?
And then she got shellacked by 7.5 points, lol.
From the sounds of it, the campaign was as mismanaged as any Stacey Abrams administration would be.
One staff member told these Axios clowns that “compensation was high for campaigns.” Oh. Overpaid to lose. Another source said Abrams has a “well-documented pattern” of “running a campaign where there’s always been more money in the future that can fix the mistakes of the past[.]”
Only Hollywood would make someone with that track record the President of Earth.
Stacey Abrams guest stars as President of United Earth on Star Trek: Discovery. (Paramount+)
And then to screw their own staffers just in time for the holidays. Who does that? Abrams is worth millions. Why wouldn’t she help these people out, especially the low-level staffers who need rent money, through the holidays? You don’t do that. You don’t give people an “abrupt paycheck cutoff date” in November. You especially don’t do that if you are a millionaire like Abrams.
The campaign said that raising money was difficult near the end because everyone knew she would get beaten. Okay, but you still had $100 million.
Little off-topic, but this race is one reason why I don’t buy all the talk about how the GOP has to get tougher with mail-in ballots, ballot curing, etc. I’m not saying Republicans shouldn’t improve there, but look at what happened in Georgia… Republican Gov. Brian Kemp won by 7.5 points. A few weeks later, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker lost by one point. That’s not a situation where the GOP learning how to game mail-in votes will change everything. That’s a situation where one candidate was more tolerable to voters than another.
Candidates matter.
Cure all the ballots you want — candidates still matter.
Stacey Abrams’s Nonprofit Worked To Purchase Multimillion-Dollar Properties Shortly Before It Sacked Employees
The New Georgia Project had $11 million in its investment account in August when it set out to pay $2.45 million in cash for a sprawling Atlanta compound. Less than two months later, the organization dismissed half its leadership staff, citing a lack of funds.
A series of internal documents and correspondences obtained by the Washington Free Beacon reveals the bizarre circumstances surrounding the real estate deal, which several parties close to the matter say are indicative of a leadership crisis within the Stacey Abrams-founded group. The deal was spearheaded by Erin Ferguson, a junior New Georgia Project staffer who in a group text urged senior leadership in late August to sign a letter of intent to purchase the two adjacent properties and swiftly pay a $30,000 non-refundable deposit.
But a former New Georgia Project senior executive told the Free Beacon that the rush to purchase the properties was strange, noting that the buildings needed at least $288,000 in repairs to be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The group was already locked into a $15,000-per-month lease at its current office through 2025, the former senior executive said.
The real estate deal is the latest murky financial situation involving the New Georgia Project. The group, which was founded to register non-white voters and once helmed by Sen. Raphael Warnock (D., Ga.), missed the deadline to file required financial disclosures to the IRS. The Free Beacon reported this month that the group's top accountant was fired after claiming he was unable to work there out of fear of breaking the law.
According to an Aug. 26 letter of intent obtained by the Free Beacon, the New Georgia Project sought to purchase the properties from Global Resource Partners, LLC. But Global Resource Partners never owned the properties. A real estate agent representing the Sheet Metal Workers Building Association, which owns the compound, told the Free Beacon that Global Resource Partners went under contract to buy the properties for around $1.92 million during the same timeframe the LLC was ostensibly trying to sell the properties to the New Georgia Project.
The real estate agent was surprised to learn that Global Resource Partners was simultaneously trying to flip the properties for at least $530,000. He added that he couldn't recall hearing about the New Georgia Project until contacted by the Free Beacon on Nov. 21.
"It makes you wonder why someone would go so far, put something under contract, not close on it, and not tell you any good reason why they didn't do it," the real estate agent said. "They kept saying they had to go out of town. Well, a bank wire can be sent anywhere in the country."
The attempted purchase of two adjacent industrial properties, totaling over 22,000 square feet, collapsed in the final days of negotiations. Global Resource Partners, the real estate agent said, dropped out of the sale at the very last minute. The properties remain on the market with an asking price of $1.92 million.
While Abrams and Warnock are no longer affiliated with the New Georgia Project, the group and its affiliated New Georgia Project Action Fund worked to get the Democrats elected this cycle, with mixed results. Abrams lost her second gubernatorial bid by nearly 8 points, and Warnock is in a runoff battle with Republican challenger Herschel Walker after failing to earn 50 percent of the vote on Election Day.
An attorney for Global Resource Partners manager Haywood Smith, who is named in the Aug. 26 letter of intent, declined to arrange an interview between Smith and the Free Beacon.
"It's a lose, lose situation," Smith's attorney, Darryl Cohen, told the Free Beacon. "As much as I would love for him to speak with you, I can't because of perception or lack thereof."
Anthony Smith, a real estate agent based out of Columbus, Ga., confirmed to the Free Beacon that he represented Haywood Smith in the deal, which he said fell through. He declined to comment further.
Ferguson claimed in an Aug. 31 text to leadership that it took "some serious lobbying" to get Global Resource Partners to entertain the charity's offer. The seller, Ferguson added, had another offer for $2.8 million that they would move on if the New Georgia Project weren't "reasonably expedient."
Prior to his role in facilitating the property purchase, Ferguson was a canvasser for the New Georgia Project, making $23 per hour, the former executive said. Ferguson is not identified on the New Georgia Project's website as a member of the charity's senior leadership team.
Ferguson declined to comment.
Ferguson had support from other members of the New Georgia Project's leadership team, including CEO Kendra Cotton. On Aug. 3, Cotton said it would be wise to "borrow" from the charity's reserves to buy the properties in cash and then for the leadership team to immediately refinance the property and pay itself back.
Ferguson insisted that the New Georgia Project was taking an unnecessary risk by having its $11 million reserve account so heavily invested in stocks, the communications show. He urged his colleagues to liquidate a significant portion of the charity's stock holdings to purchase the properties, claiming it was a "very safe" investment that would protect the group against inflation and allow it to secure lines of credit.
"The numbers are compelling… every morning the market opens at 9Am we spend 11Million," Ferguson wrote in an Aug. 9 text. "Also we will have offers on this building for 3-4 Million the day we close."
Ferguson won his superiors over by Sept. 6, when he claimed the deal needed to be closed by the following day. New Georgia Project chairman Francys Johnson asked for the letter of intent to be sent over for review.
"This is all good news," Johnson said.
It's not clear if New Georgia Partners ever signed the letter of intent or submitted the $30,000 earnest money deposit to purchase the properties from Global Resource Partners. It's also not clear why Global Resource Partners dropped out of purchasing the properties at the last minute.
On Oct. 7, the New Georgia Project's director of human resources during a video conference fired its chief operations officer as well as its directors of design and digital marketing. The reason given was that the organization could no longer afford their salaries.
A spokeswoman for the New Georgia Project did not respond to a request for comment.
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