The State Ethics Commission's Web site provides the tools to analyze campaign funds for candidates for state office. Its Report Log lists the most recent disclosures to e filed, which helps to identify late filers such as Titlemax

Ethics fines trimmed for Maddox, McDonald

June 17 -- The State Ethics Commission today reduced five-figure ethics fines for Atlanta City Councilman Jim Maddox and Georgia Public Service Commissioner Lauren "Bubba" McDonald Jr.

Maddox, cited for failing to report $47,000 in expenses for his 2005 race for re-election, was fined $5,000. The commission's staff had initially called for a $10,500 fine, which an administrative law judge recommended be reduced to $6.650.

McDonald admitted to omitting $46,000 in campaign contributions and $76,000 in spending from reports on his 2002 PSC race. The Ethics staff had recommended a hefty $28,300 fine, but McDonald argued the violations he should only have to pay the much lighter penalties that the commission normally imposed when the case was opened. The commission agreed Wednesday and ordered McDonald to pay just $3,000.

In each case, the commission concluded that lighter fines were warranted because Maddox and McDonald had no previous offenses and the violations did not influence the outcome of an election.

McDonald suggested politics was behind the case against him, which  had lain dormant until he ran again for the PSC in 2008.

Stefan Ritter, a senior assistant attorney general, denied politics had any role in his agency's involvement in the McDonald matter: "There is no political motive at all in our handling of these cases. Zero. None."

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