A former Gwinnett County Commissioner faces more than $13,000 in penalties for allegedly violating state campaign finance laws.
On Thursday, the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission found probable cause that former Gwinnett Commissioner Mike Beaudreau broke the law during his 2014 bid for state Senate by accepting four campaign contributions exceeding contribution limits, failing to file required disclosure reports for three of those contributions (though they were disclosed on later reports) and failing to disclose the general purpose of his spending, including the expenditure recipients, on eight occasions.
At Thursday’s meeting, Beaudreau attributed the civil violations to the death of his campaign treasurer during the 2014 campaign. He said his campaign should have divided the contributions that exceeded limits for a single election into two elections — a primary and a primary runoff. And he characterized all the violations as simply clerical errors.
Beaudreau faces more than $13,000 in civil penalties for the alleged violations, but the amount is likely to be reduced. The commission gave him 60 days to work out a settlement agreement with the agency’s attorneys.
Beaudreau served two terms on the Gwinnett Board of Commissioners before he was defeated by Tommy Hunter in 2012. In 2014 he ran for the state Senate District 9 seat, but lost in a Republican primary runoff to P.K. Martin.
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