The latest Georgia campaign disclosures don’t show a new flood of money from two of the hot-button political funders on the right and left, the Koch brothers and George Soros.
Candidates, big donors and political action committees are filing reports right now for what they raised and spent through Sept. 30, one of the last major deadlines before the November election. Not all reports are yet in.
But Koch Industries reported no new contributions to candidates or Republican causes since the spring.
The Koch brothers, mega-funders of conservative causes throughout the country, had been writing some big checks in Georgia races earlier this election season.
Their Wichita, Kansas-based oil, gas and textile conglomerate Koch Industries donated about $70,000 to state candidates and causes - almost all Republicans, during the first five months of 2014. Of that, $50,000 went to a state GOP fund.
Since last October, it has contributed about $101,000 in Georgia, include $12,600 to Gov. Nathan Deal’s re-election campaign, $5,000 to Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and $2,500 the day before the 2014 General Assembly session started to House Speaker David Ralston.
That total since last October is nearly as much as the brothers and their companies gave in Georgia between 2006 and the start of October 2013.
Soros, the patron of liberal causes, hasn’t typically been a big donor to state politicians. His $6,300 donation to the campaign of Sen. Jason Carter, D-Atlanta, in May was his first to a state politician since the ethics commission began keeping electronic records in the mid-2000s.
Carter, the Democratic nominee for governor, has used the contacts of his grandfather, former President Jimmy Carter, to raise money across the country. An Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis showed Carter has specifically done well raising money among the typically liberal Hollywood crowd.
About the Author
