ATLANTA — A political fundraising tool that allows wealthy donors and corporations to contribute unlimited amounts of money to key state leaders is giving some Georgia Republicans a head start on races for 2026.

An Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis of financial disclosures filed this month found that some of the biggest donors to what are know as leadership committees have business interests before the Georgia General Assembly during the ongoing legislative session.

Lt. Gov. Burt Jones is one of the biggest beneficiaries, amassing $2.5 million in his account as he readies a run for the Republican nomination for governor in 2026. But his key GOP opponent, Attorney General Chris Carr, is forbidden from using the same committee to raise unlimited donations because of the way the legislation is constructed.

The Republican-backed law allows the governor and lieutenant governor and legislative leaders from both parties to raise unlimited funds — even during Georgia’s legislative session, when state officials would otherwise be banned from fundraising. It excludes other statewide officials, including the attorney general.

Jones received two major contributions after the start of this year’s session: A $40,000 check from the Georgia Reel Industry Professionals, which supports the film tax credit, and another $100,000 from the American Health and Wellness Association, which advocates for the health supplement and derivative industry.

Records show he also received a $250,000 contribution in May 2024 from Rod Ratcliff, who was once a powerful gambling executive in Indiana and was later permanently banned from the state’s gaming industry. Ratcliff couldn’t be reached for comment on the donation.

Gov. Brian Kemp has also aggressively used his committee to raise money, mostly from businesses with interests in state legislation. He has spent the cash boosting his preferred candidates, including a recent seven-figure infusion to back President Donald Trump’s comeback bid.

Among the biggest recent contributions to Kemp was a $100,000 check in December 2024 from the Atlanta Apartment Association, which opposes state legislation to revise zoning procedures that would make it harder to build dense apartment developments.

And he received a $100,000 donation in January 2025 from Altamaha Investment Holdings, a Macon-based nursing care company. The nursing home industry is generally one of the most active in state politics, with hundreds of millions of dollars in funding on the line.

Some donors spread their money around.

RedSpeed Georgia, which makes video cameras for school systems to crack down on speeding violations, contributed $150,000 each to both Jones’ leadership committee and a PAC tied to the House GOP caucus between September 2023 and October 2024.

Lawmakers are considering measures to revamp how school zone cameras are regulated in Georgia, including one measure that calls for an outright ban of the devices. House Speaker Jon Burns, meanwhile, has endorsed legislation that would direct all ticket revenue from the cameras exclusively to school districts.

An early 2026 flashpoint

Tensions over the complex 2021 law that created the committees are fast becoming a flashpoint in the governor’s race. Carr’s campaign has warned that Jones can’t tap the funds to run for governor after he launches his bid. Jones’ camp told the AJC he sharply disagrees.

The last race for governor showcased the power of the committees.

Kemp and Democrat Stacey Abrams combined to raise about $100 million through theirs during their 2022 rematch.

Since then, the Republican governor has continued leveraging his committee to build his war chest as he contemplates a U.S. Senate bid — money he could use to position himself for his next move.

Meanwhile, Jones could leverage his multimillion-dollar account to promote his priorities, boost his name recognition and support his allies — even if it’s unclear whether he can directly spend it on his yet-to-be announced bid for governor.

‘Like laundering election money’

Democrats — and even some Republicans — have complained that leadership committees give incumbent Republicans an unfair advantage over potential challengers.

Former state Sen. Jen Jordan, a Democrat who challenged Carr in 2022, said they “basically allow a select few incumbents to completely skirt all of the campaign finance requirements” in Georgia law.

“It’s almost like laundering election money,” she added. “You can do with it whatever you want to do.”

Carr has no access to a leadership committee of his own, and he can’t start one until he wins his party’s nomination. That means he and other candidates for Georgia’s top job are limited to maximum donations of $8,400 for the May 2026 primary and can’t raise money during the legislative session.

That restriction was a key reason he launched his bid in mid-November, kicking off one of the earliest campaigns for governor in state history. He scrambled to raise nearly $2.2 million before the Jan. 13 start of the session.

While Carr is locked out of leadership committee funds, Jones already has a seven-figure balance. But the legal fight over whether he can use the account for his expected gubernatorial bid is just beginning.

Carr’s campaign points to a 2022 federal ruling that barred Kemp from using his leadership committee to advocate for his reelection or attack his opponents during a contested primary or runoff.

The ruling, however, didn’t prevent the governor from raising money through the committee during the primary, nor did it stop him from using the funds to boost his agenda or pay campaign staff.

The law also allows Democratic legislative leaders to form committees that can raise unlimited cash. But as the minority party, they collect only a fraction of what top Republicans bring in.

Their latest campaign reports show no six-figure contributions, though Democratic committees pulled in five-figure contributions from sports gambling proponents, gun-control advocates and other interests.

State Democrats sued last year to overturn the law, saying it gives an unfair advantage to a few incumbent officials while other contenders face strict limits on how much they can raise.

Democrats later dropped the lawsuit, but a similar challenge filed by the Green Party and Libertarian Party is pending.

Jordan has been involved in some of the litigation. She said leadership committees “put a tremendous amount of power and control in the hands of a few incumbents” by flooding the zone with unlimited dollars.

“Everything bad about politics really finds its source in the money,” she said.

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