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Georgia Log Cabin Republicans Prevail in Ethics Case Against Atlanta Mayor Bottoms [D]

Mayor Bottoms fined $37,000 for accepting $117,697 in illegal campaign contributions

January 8, 2021

ATLANTA, GEORGIA - On Wednesday, January 7th, 2021, the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission fined Atlanta's Democratic Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms $37,000 for campaign finance violations during and after her 2017 general election. After three years of denials, delays, attacks on the commission and refusing to comply with a subpoena, the Bottoms campaign finally admitted it accepted $117,697 in illegal campaign donations, a fraction of the original amount alleged.

Georgia Log Cabin chapter President Coleman E. Williamson says, "Log Cabin praises the penalty against Mayor Bottoms. The fine was large and significant, but punishment could and should have gone further. We are concerned that Mayor Bottoms' campaign consultant Rick Thompson sits on the ethics commission and refused to recuse himself from this complaint. I believe that was to clear her for a cabinet position with the Biden administration that she so desperately craves. This is a clear conflict of interest that was not addressed."

Former Log Cabin Republicans National Board Chairman Jamie Ensley adds, "Atlanta voters have a right to demand that campaigns are free from illegal contributions. Log Cabin is disappointed that the ethics commission failed to fully audit the Bottoms campaign. Our elected officials should be held to higher standards than this."

Georgia Log Cabin plans to amend its ethics complaint against Mayor Bottoms to fully vet the Bottoms campaign's financial ethics non-compliance with a comprehensive audit, object to her campaign consultant Thompson's obvious conflict of interest, and include additional campaign improprieties since our original complaint was filed.