ATLANTA — Georgia Lt. Gov candidate Burt Jones was officially fined $1,000 Monday after the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission accepted a consent order in an ethics complaint.
The order says Jones paid the commission on March 18, and he also agreed to reimburse his state senate campaign $8,000.
It’s the end result of an ethics complaint filed by north Georgia attorney Daniel Laird III in late Aug. 2021.
The complaint goes back to a tweet from Senator Burt Jones on July 8, 2021, showing Jones and his family shooting what looks to be a campaign video.
Those same scenes seen in the tweet were featured in a campaign video tweeted on Aug. 10.
The problem? The complaint alleges the campaign video was filmed before Jones filed paperwork required to accept and spend campaign contributions.
Jones filed paperwork on Aug. 6, 2021, at least a month after the campaign video was shot.
The commission found Jones mistakenly accepted a campaign contribution before a declaration of intent to accept contributions had been filed.
The consent order also notes that Jones and his campaign staff "have gone out of their way to be communicative, transparent, and wholly forthcoming."