A Georgia voter’s guide to campaign finance research: Who is funding who? Here’s where to look

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The Macon-Bibb County Board of Elections office in the old Macon Mall.

Credit: Jason Vorhees / Georgia Trust for Local News

Officials running for public office in Georgia are raising big money for their political campaigns.

Who contributed how much dough to whom and what those candidates are spending it on is easy information to find, if you know where to look.

The Georgia Campaign Finance Commission publishes campaign contribution disclosure reports and personal financial disclosures to a publicly accessible online dashboard.

Candidates are required to file campaign finance disclosure with the commission six times in an election year and twice in a non-election year. Those reports show how much money candidates have raised for their campaigns, who donated what amounts and how candidates spent the donations.

Candidates for statewide offices may accept contributions of up to $8,400 from a single person or entity during a general or primary election or up to $4,800 during a runoff election. The maximum single-source contribution allowed for all other offices is $3,300 but drops to $1,800 during a runoff.

Deadlines to file those disclosures for PACs and candidates running in 2024 are Jan. 31, April 30, June 30, Sept. 30, Oct. 25 and Dec. 31, according to the state filing schedule. The state allows a 5-day grace period for candidates to file reports after those deadlines. Once that window closes, candidates may be fined late fees.

Personal financial disclosure reports contain even more information about candidates and their spouses, including the names of their employers, business investments, financial investments, property owned, fiduciary positions held and any other payments from the state other than the stipend for state-level elected officials.

Some candidates do not plan to raise a lot of cash. In those cases, candidates who intend to raise or spend less than $2,500 can file an affidavit to that effect, Macon-Bibb County Elections Officer Tom Gillon said.

Gillon said earlier this week the elections office was still uploading candidate forms to the state website. Some candidates who recently qualified to run for public office won’t have to file their first campaign finance disclosure until April 30.

Step 1: Go to efile.ethics.ga.gov

Step 2: In the search bar, type in Bibb and press ENTER.

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Step 3: Click on “Macon-Bibb (Cons. Gov.)” on the drop-down menu under the title “Non-Candidate Committees/Local Filing.”

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Step 4: Scroll through the list of candidates to view personal financial disclosures statements and campaign contribution disclosure reports (CCRDs.)

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This story comes to GPB through a reporting partnership with the Macon Newsroom.