Will You Turn To Todd?

Cary Lucas and his campaign have spent over $80k in illegally unreported funds. In addition those illegal funds, he has refused to file personal financial disclosures. Those disclosures are required by law to help prevent fraud and conflict of interest, but Cary has apparently decided to ignore the law. This represents one of the most egregious ethics violations in the state’s modern history. An ethics complaint has been filed and an investigation is ongoing, but voters need to know. 

EDIT: After Cary became aware that we were preparing an ethics complaint, he filed SOME of his paperwork. It’s still incomplete, rife with irregularities and violations, and very late. He has not paid his fine or filed his personal financial disclosure.

February 16th: Cary files Declaration of Intent to Fundraise

On February 16th Cary filed a Declaration of Intent (DOI) to run for office. A DOI is required in Georgia before you can raise money for a campaign. It establishes your campaign committee, the treasurer responsible for the committee should it commit an ethics violation, and it requires the candidate to affirm his or her intention to comply with Georgia campaign disclosure requirements. When the DOI is filed, the state ethics commission provides the candidate with the schedule and information required to comply with Georgia election law.

Cary’s filing had some irregularities that make it difficult to ensure there’s no illegal dark money groups spending in this race. He did not name his committee, and he did not list a treasurer. Over the course of April, a series of mailers were sent out attacking Todd. Some of the mailers were sent by “Lucas for Georga” (sic), and some were sent by Friends to Elect Cary Lucas. We believe that Friends to Elect Cary Lucas is Mr. Lucas’ campaign committee, and Lucas for Georga (sic) is an illegal shadow group. Because of Mr. Lucas’s incomplete DOI, it’s hard to know for certain. We know that one of them has to be illegal, because state law limits candidates for State House to one committee.

March: Friends to Elect Cary Lucas Creates Fake Mailer

Most of the mailers were incoherent screenshots from Mr. Lucas’s website, but one in particular was at least coherent enough to convey a message. It included a photoshopped image of Todd’s face in a picture with Joe Biden. The mailer erroneously claimed that Todd Jones gave $250k to Democrats. The picture, and the alleged $250k donation from Todd, never happened. It was all fabricated. That particular mailer was sent by Friends to Elect Cary Lucas.

March 25th: Mr. Lucas Refuses to file Personal Financial Disclosures

Mr. Lucas has repeatedly attacked Todd for his business interests, all of which are reported to the ethics commission. The state of Georgia requires all candidates for office to file paperwork in late March disclosing all of their assets, investments, employers, and business interests. This exists so the ethics commission can monitor and ensure the type of conflicts that Todd is accused of cannot happen. Cary Lucas has refused to file that document. As of 5/16/24, it is over 7 weeks late. Mr. Lucas has apparently decided he would rather pay the hefty fine than allow the ethics commission and the voters to see his conflicts of interest.

March 27th: Ethics Commission Fines Mr. Lucas

Mr. Lucas was fined by the ethics commission for failing to file his personal financial disclosure. As of May 17th at 6pm, he still has not paid the fine. You can check on the state of his fine here.  He is currently ineligible for office because this fine remains unpaid, but he can’t be removed from the ballot at this time.

April 30th: Mr. Lucas Refuses to file Campaign Finance Report

On April 30th, every campaign is required to file fundraising and expenditure reports. This disclosure exists for two reasons: to ensure the public knows who funds each candidate, and to ensure candidates aren’t committing fraud and stealing campaign funds for personal use. Mr. Lucas did not file his disclosures. As of 5/15 Mr. Lucas’ had reported $0 in contributions and $0 in expenses for the entire election cycle

May 14th: $42k Xfinity Contracts with Mr. Lucas Discovered

We’ve all seen the fake mailers, received the texts, and seen the illegal signs in the median and right-of-ways around town. It’s pretty obvious Cary is spending money, but there was no way to prove his campaign was spending it, rather than an illegal dark money group. On 5/14/24 we were made aware, through the public filings on the FCC website, that Mr. Lucas had a contract with Xfinity for $42k in TV commercials. This contract requires the candidate to sign a statement affirming that they are abiding by all state and federal election laws. Mr. Lucas clearly lied on that form.

May 16th at 11am: Mr. Lucas files Incomplete and False Campaign Report

On May 15th we sent a letter to Xfinity alerting them to the illegal campaign activity. On 5/16/24 at 11am Mr. Lucas finally filed an incomplete disclosure report. At 11:53am we were forwarded Mr. Lucas’ correspondences with Xfinity, where he said all campaign reports have been filed. (At the time of writing this post, this statement is untrue. He never filed his Personal Financial Disclosure) His incomplete campaign report was clearly filed simply to prevent his ads from being pulled from the air. The incomplete disclosure fails to report $9.5k in contributions, claiming it was an unreported loan he received in January. It was illegal for him to receive a loan before establishing his committee in February, and illegal to fail to report said loan. It appears he was receiving large, illegal, unreported contributions to pay for his consultant. Who’s funding this guy?

He also failed to report the $42k Xfinity contracts, any mailers, texts, facebook ads, merchant fees, or yard signs. In addition to these violations, he reportedly gave himself a $51k loan, and reported his employer as “unknown”. Apparently Cary Lucas is such a shady fellow, he doesn’t even know who’s paying him.

May 16th 3pm: Mr. Lucas Files Amended False Campaign Report

Later in the afternoon, Mr. Lucas filed an amended report attempting to account for the missing $9.5k. This discrepancy was “fixed” by adding two different loans from the candidate, one for $4.5k and one for $5k. The need for this amendment is troubling even on face value, but a closer look at the disclosure raises more red flags. Mr. Lucas reported paying his consultant $5,000 on February 16th, but did not report receiving any funds until February 22nd, when he allegedly loaned himself money. He allegedly spent funds that do not exist.  Obviously, that can’t happen. The money does exist, he just doesn’t want to report it to the voters and the ethics commission. That type of dishonesty calls into questions the rest of his report, and his campaign for that matter. Is this the type of “integrity” we want representing us?

May 21st: Voters Send a Message

Mr. Lucas will undoubtedly be hit with countless violations and pay a large fine when this race is over. However, he thinks he can steal this race and just pay the fine afterward. We have NEVER seen such a brazen, illegal strategy in a Georgia House race before. If he gets away with it, will this behavior become normal? The best way to stop it is to send a resounding message at the ballot box on Tuesday; THIS WILL NOT BE TOLERATED.

The general public doesn’t often hear about ethics violations. Many times they consist of accounting errors or questionable campaign expenses. Campaigns pour over opponents’ disclosure reports looking for small errors. What they find may constitute an ethics violation, but it’s rarely worthy of a news story. The issue gets hashed out in a hearing, and only a handful of voters ever even know. The process seems mundane, but it’s incredibly important to ensure the integrity of our elections. Before the modern ethics reform, lobbyists and dark money groups were free to buy legislators with lavish gifts and tens of thousands of dollars for the candidate’s personal use. Elected officials got new cars, paid off their mortgage, or got a new pool. The new laws put a stop to that. Unfortunately, Mr. Lucas doesn’t believe the law applies to him. What kind of corruption is he hiding?

All of these issues are incredibly alarming. Rest assured we are doing everything in our power to hold Mr. Lucas accountable, and we are confident the voters will do the same.