Competitive Georgia ad barrage is already influencing public opinion

Swing-voter focus group: “We support tort reform, whatever that means”

A dark-money group affiliated with the far-right Federalist Society is doing Governor Brian Kemp’s dirty work in his push to pass tort reform this legislative session. Competitive Georgia, the shadowy and newly formed ‘non-partisan’ nonprofit that is running ads pushing tort reform, has no public filings other than an IRS determination letter addressed to a self-identified member of the archconservative Federalist Society. 

“The Federalist Society has made clear they’re willing to sacrifice consumer health and safety if it means greater profits for big business, and it’s no surprise one of their members is spearheading a dark money campaign to make their vision a reality in Georgia,” said DPG spokesperson Dave Hoffman. “Juries made up of real people determine what consumers are owed when corporate negligence hurts Georgians – not Brian Kemp, his enablers in the General Assembly, or the negligent corporations themselves.”  

According to Axios, Competitive Georgia’s recent ad blitz appears to be working. Two recent swing-voter focus groups saw participants parroting lines from their pro-tort reform ads, even though nobody knew what “tort reform” meant and most “have no clue what a ‘tort’ is.” While Competitive Georgia, as a “non-partisan nonprofit,” isn’t required to list the donors funding their ad barrage, the group also fails to identify any members of the board of directors “governing its activities.”  

Despite Kemp’s claims in his State of the State address that civil litigation is driving up costs for businesses and consumers, four decades of data compiled by the NYU’s Center for Democracy and Justice have shown that argument to be categorically untrue as “insurance premiums ‘do not fall in parallel with costs’ [and] caps lead to ‘sustained supranormal profits.'”