What I didn’t address is the possibility that someone at Fulton County already knows the resolution is legally invalid as an attempt to regulate campaign activity statutorily reserved to the State. The evidence would appear to indicate that they do.
A careful read of Commissioner Emma Darnell’s website announcing the resolution shows that someone appears to have inadvertently attached a privileged legal analysis from the Indiana Attorney General to the Indiana Senate to the end of her proposal concluding that a virtually identical resolution, “if enacted by the City of Fort Wayne, would be invalid as an attempt to regulate, without specific statutory authority, conduct which is regulated by a state agency.” (emphasis added)
One can only speculate as to the reason why such a legal opinion would be attached to the proposed Fulton County resolution. One potential possibility would be that the Commission is already concerned that the resolution as proposed is legally invalid. On the off-chance that Commissioner Darnell’s website changes subsequent to this post, here is a screen-grab of the resolution along with the apparently inadvertently attached legal opinion as it was originally circulated.
Without offering any legal advice upon which anyone should rely, it would appear that Georgia’s constitutional and statutory structure mirrors that which concerned the Indiana Attorney General when he analyzed the Fort Wayne pay-to-play proposal. As is the case in Indiana, the Fulton County proposal clearly seeks to regulate conduct related to campaign financing and contributions. As is the case in Indiana, Georgia’s “Home Rule” provisions limit the power of municipalities to matters not preempted by the General Assembly through general law and not specifically enumerated as matters of state authority under O.C.G.A § 36-35-6. Included among those powers reserved to the state are authority over election procedures and campaign finance rules, which are specifically administered by the St ate Board of Elections and Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission in accordance with the requirements of general law and the state constitution.
In fairness, there are some in Indiana who disagree with the analysis and conclusion reached by Indiana Attorney General Zoeller; including Fort Wayne’s former city attorney. Nonetheless, this would appear to be a good opportunity for Fulton County to slow down, exhale, and reconsider.
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