INTRODUCTION
Though the following quote has been attributed to Albert Einstein being the author, he may not have ever said it or written it (as I dug into the subject on the Web and came upon this guy’s research); nonetheless, the concept still means the same:
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.”
Insanity, Ladies & Gentlemen, would be the explanation for the Georgia GOP grassroots to choose to re-elect David Shafer for another term as Ga GOP State Chair. Why would that fit the definition of “insanity?”
Well, let’s look at the electoral results as an indicator: We lost TWO U.S. Senate seats in the same cycle, and we got blown out of the water by the Democratic Party’s proactive ground game by losing votes in the Presidential race, as well as losses of lower level Republican positions.
If you believe that all the losses are due to something SOS Brad Raffensperger and the State Board of Elections did back in March of 2020, I would say you have been sadly misled.
Many of the losses can be tracked right back to Shafer’s failures as Chair to follow thru on many critical things he promised he would do when he ran for chair in 2019. How do we know what he promised?
He had it on his 2019 campaign website. Here is a copy of his (copied here because things have a habit of disappearing when it comes to Shafer): ShaferBookFinal (I’ll discuss this in Part 2.)
In addition to several of his failures from his “Plan” being carried out to the detriment of the Georgia Republican Party’s performance in 2020-2021, I have recently discovered several disturbing things regarding Mr. Shafer and his campaign finances:
1) He deliberately misled (and probably continues to do so today) his grassroots supporters, and
2) He has possibly committed multiple violations of state campaign financing laws, the majority of which involve him deliberately, and knowingly, converting money from two of his public office campaign accounts to his personal financial use.
If ANY Democrat office holder, current or former, did what I will present to you that Mr. Shafer has done, you would be screaming for an “Ethics Investigation!” for that Democrat.
In fact, his violations of the law will be presented first because once you realize what a conniving snake he is, you will better grasp how he set the Ga GOP up for failure this past November 2020 and January 2021.
Shafer’s Ethical Lapses
Below is a snapshot of the top of Shafer’s Donation Page for his 2019 campaign for chair website:
Note the wording below the ‘Shafer for Chairman’:
“David is paying for his campaign out of his own pocket, just like you pay for your volunteer Republican work. He is not holding fundraisers or soliciting donations. Any donations made here will go to Republican Victory for Georgia and used to support the Georgia Republican Party.”
What if you learned that NONE of his claim that he paid for his campaign “out of his own pocket” was true?
Further, what if you learned that “Republican Victory for Georgia” is a phantom organization that only exists in David Shafer’s mind, but Shafer actually claimed to the State Ethics Commission, in writing, that it is a viable legal entity? (Side Note: knowingly making False Statements, when made in campaign disclosures, are misdemeanors.)
It’s one thing to violate campaign finance laws (which is a pretty serious legal issue), but to actually contrive a claim that YOU are paying for Republican partisan activism out of your OWN pocket, and it turns out you’re lying about that, that should give any of you who are stalwart Shafer supporters pause to check your allegiance with him…and see if you are willing to continue following him over the cliff?
These are the facts:
In 2018, then-State Senator Shafer ran for Lieutenant Governor and lost in the primary run-off. This was actually the 2nd time he ran for LG. The first time was in the 2010 election, but that was a run that he did not complete because, you may recall, it was then-LG Casey Cagle who was going to run for Governor, but then decided to stay at LG. When Casey decided to not run for Governor, Shafer stopped running to replace him as LG, and remained a state senator.
I bring-up this little history because there are two campaign accounts that exist for Shafer’s two LG runs, both named exactly the same: “David Shafer For Georgia, Inc.”
How does one tell them apart for campaign accounting purposes? The Ethics Commission’s Reporting System assigns a unique “Filer ID Number” for each entity that registers and files disclosures. The first 4 digits of any FilerID# is the year the campaign registered with the Commission.
These are the three campaign legal entities Shafer has in relation to his various public offices:
2006-State Senate (Active)
David Shafer Senate Committee
FilerID#: C2006000189
2010-LG race (Terminated)
David Shafer for Georgia, Inc.
FilerID#: C2008000913
2018-LG race (Active)
David Shafer For Georgia, Inc.
FilerID#: C2017000292
[If you want to go exploring for all kinds of info about any state legislator or constitutional officer, you go here and look things up: https://ethics.ga.gov ]
Shafer has kept his State Senate campaign account in the Active Status, though he has failed to file his Campaign Disclosure that was due in January 2021. By his last filing made on June 30, 2020, he had almost $168,000 remaining in cash in that account (what did he do with that money for the 2nd half of 2020?).
Shafer has also kept his campaign account for his 2018 run for LG active, and as of his January 8, 2021 filing, he has cash on hand in the amount of $168,760.
He has filed Termination reports on his 2010-LG account back in 2018 (though the Disclosure System still registers that account as being “Active”).
As of early January 2019, all political activity for either the 2018 LG race or the termination of his serving as a State Senator should have legally come to a halt, because he was no longer an elected official, nor running for any public office.
As of the first part of January 2019, Shafer no longer held any public office position. Also, as we can see, he did not run for State Senate in 2020.
So, what can one do with one’s campaign funds if one has “excess contributions” and no race for publicly elected office?
Well, the State of Georgia actually has laws in place that directs every candidate for public office on what they can do with their money, and what they cannot do with those excess funds.
And, what is “public office” under the law? It is an office that has a state government-authorized election associated with that public office position.
OCGA 21-5-3 has all the legal definitions for learning what constitutes a “public officer” and what constitutes an “election.”
Election: (9) “Election” means a primary election; run-off election, either primary or general; special election; or general election. The term “election” also means a recall election.
AND
(22) “Public officer” means:
(A) Every constitutional officer;
(B) Every elected state official;
(C) The executive head of every state department or agency, whether elected or appointed;
(D) Each member of the General Assembly;
(E) The executive director of each state board, commission, council, or authority and the members thereof;
(F) Every elected county official and every elected member of a local board of education; and
(G) Every elected municipal official.”
So, when David Shafer ran to be State Chairman of the Georgia GOP in 2019, that position is not a position that fits the definition of “public office” in the State, nor was that a legally-recognized “election” for the purpose of being allowed to use campaign funds to try to get elected.
This is the law that stipulates what someone can do with their campaign contributions: OCGA 21-5-33. Disposition of contributions
On 5/8/2019, there was a $16,861.63 payment made to Rosetta Stone Communications, from David Shafer’s 2018 LG Campaign account. Weirdly, that is exactly 1 week before the May 15, 2019 State GOP Convention:
During Shafer’s 2018 campaign for LG, he did hire Rosetta Stone for several gigs:
Oddly, an identical amount of money, $16,861.63, was previously paid to Rosetta Stone Communications back on 7/24/2018 for Shafer’s LG race.
How weird that “communications services” for two different sized races, 500,000+ voters in 2018 (for the run off against Duncan) vs. 3500 delegates in the 2019 GOP chairman’s race…cost the identical dollar amount. Really…odd.
Makes one wonder IF the May 2019 recorded expenditure was a real payment made to Rosetta, or was it a fabricated payment Shafer made to himself to hide what the money was actually used for? (Before you brush that off as “ridiculous,” read all the way down this article.)
Additionally, there are many other expenditures occurring from Shafer’s leaky LG campaign account, and, his active State Senate account, and in different ways, both appear to be used to support his candidacy for State GOP Chairman. This is a link to a PDF created by querying the Disclosures Database for all expenditures made after 1/1/2019 thru 2/28/2021 from any campaign account where the Candidate Name is “Shafer”: ShaferCampaignExpenditures-NoElection
I will publicly allege that several of these expenditures made after January 1, 2019, extending into 2020, paid directly from Shafer’s LG account & State Senate account, are illegal uses of campaign funds. And every time an illegal payment was made, that counts as a separate violation of the law.
But, don’t go away, there’s MORE to come!
Let’s revisit what Shafer has/had on his Donations page of his GOP Chairman Campaign website:
“David is paying for his campaign out of his own pocket, just like you pay for your volunteer Republican work. He is not holding fundraisers or soliciting donations. Any donations made here will go to Republican Victory for Georgia and used to support the Georgia Republican Party.”
Below is an extraction from Shafer’s 2019 June30 Senate Disclosure:
Note the two rectangular boxes: The top one, the red one, outlines two payments made from his State Senate campaign to an entity named “Republican Victory for Georgia,” totaling $15,000, right during the time period of his campaign for GOP State Chair.
Note the reason for the expense: “Contribution – Nonprofit organization formed to finance intraparty political”
Note the address of where the RVG entity resides:
3635 Peachtree Industrial Boulevard
Suite 400
Duluth, GA 30096
Note the name and address of the other entity on this page in which Shafer’s State Senate campaign paid “rent money” to: “Wall Shafer, P.C.” (Wall Shafer, P.C. is the law office for Shafer’s wife)
Wall Shafer has the same address as the “Victory” entity. Also, coincidentally, Shafer disclosed, via his last Financial Disclosure (SenatorShafer-2018-FinancialD) all these other entities he is associated with at that very same address:
What is the ‘Republican Victory for Georgia?’
What an excellent question. Because…I searched the Georgia Secretary of State’s Website for all entities beginning with the word “Republican.” This entity is not listed anywhere on that list (Georgia-Legal-Entities-starting-with-Republican).
According to State Law on Campaign Expenditures, there is no mention of the phrase “intra-party political campaign” or related being an allowed entity in which excess contributions can be used to contribute money. The only mention relating to giving money to a non-profit is this part of the law:
OCGA 21-5-33 (a)(2)
“All contributions received by a campaign committee as provided in paragraph (1) of this subsection in excess of those necessary to defray expenses relative to the influencing of voters on such issue as determined by the campaign committee may only be used as follows:
“(A) Contributions to any charitable organization described in 26 U.S.C. 170(c) as such federal statute exists on March 1, 1986, and which additionally shall include educational, eleemosynary, and nonprofit organizations;”
I am certain Mr. Shafer (or his defense attorney for his impending ethics complaint) will proclaim that the Republican Victory for Georgia entity is a “nonprofit organization” and therefore Shafer is free and clear!
Not so fast, Home boy/girl…because…looking back to the “Definitions” part of the campaign contribution law, OCGA 21-5-3(17.2) defines what counts as a “nonprofit:”
“Nonprofit organization” means a corporation, foundation, or other legal entity, no part of the net earnings of which inures to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual holding an interest in such entity.
In the case of Mr. Shafer, and the physical address of the RVG entity being the exact same address as most of his other business entities, it doesn’t look like his RVG would pass the legal test on being a legal ‘nonprofit,’ authorized to accept $15,000 contributed from Shafer’s State Senate Campaign account. Because HE appears to be the only “private shareholder” of this entity (an entity I believe to be 100% fictitious).
And, going back to his campaign promise of “…Any donations made here will go to Republican Victory for Georgia and used to support the Georgia Republican Party.”…Well, in checking for ANY contributions to the Georgia Republican Party from ANY entity with the name “Victory” contained within it in the time period of concern, I could find no such contribution from any entity by the name of “Republican Victory for Georgia.”
In fact, if you click this link, I have embedded a query based on any occurrence of the word “Victory” in the Contributor’s Name slot, along with the Committee Name of the Recipient containing the word “Republican” and I bracketed the time frame to be from 1/1/2019 thru 2/28/2021, and the only entities fitting this are:
Georgia Victory Committee in Beverly, MA
Perdue Victory, Inc. in Atlanta, GA
Thompson Victory Group in Atlanta, GA
Trump Victory in Beverly, MA
Victory Public Affairs, LLC in Atlanta, GA
So, it is rather clear that he used his State Senate campaign coffers to enrich himself personally. He paid for some of his campaign for 2019 chair out of his LG account (and continues to pay from that account for many expenses unrelated to running for LG office), and he used campaign funds from the State Senate account for his own personal use (and also continues to tap those funds to pay for his personal business expenses, separate from campaigning for ANY public office).
There is no legal entity registered with the State of Georgia called “Republican Victory for Georgia.”
Also, there are no campaign disclosures for that RVG entity, “intraparty” or not. (Also, OCGA also has no such word as ‘intraparty’ in it, anywhere.)
So…those two payments, totaling $15,000, from his own State Senate account, paid to something at his own business address, look to be…how you sayyy…FAKE. Fraudulent. Fabricated. Fabricated so as to create the appearance of the payments being for legit, campaign purposes, but they were not legit at all.
And, fraudulent in that every time a campaign disclosure is filed, there is a statement at the bottom of the first page of every disclosure: “The electronic filing of this document constitutes an affirmation that the statement is true, complete, and correct.”
It’s not “correct” to use campaign funds for personal purposes. It’s not right. It’s not legal.
AND…again, he did not take money from his own pocket to pay for his activism. He’s not “just like you” of the Georgia Republican grassroots…he is a charlatan…he is a liar in that vein…Shafer is a conniver. He lied to each and every one of you when he claimed he’s ‘just like you, paying for things out of his own pocket.” Baloney.
He took money from his campaign funds and converted them to his own personal, unethical use, in supporting his run for a political party position. Campaign money is money from other people, not him. Not his “own pocket.”
Until my reading and researching this matter, and seeing how blatantly dishonest he is in using campaign funds for personal gain, I didn’t have concrete proof of just how shady, Shady Shafer really is.
That moniker (“Shady Shafer”), by the way, has been glued to him by others for over 20 years…and while I have been personally aware of his conniving ways…it’s been hard to prove it to anyone else, until now.
If you are curious as to how to file a State Ethics Complaint, there is a link below that will take you to the state government site, as well as I have done nearly all the work for someone to file by preparing the cover page you need to attach to the front of your complaint when you file (SHAFER-COMPLAINT-FORM)
How To File A State Ethics Complaint
https://ethics.ga.gov/complaints/
READ ON TO PART 2
