South Gwinnett News

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) rejected a complaint filed by Democrats that accused a Georgia Republican congressman of violating campaign finance laws.

The commission sent a letter to Rep. Buddy Carter stating he acted legally last year when he spent money to explore a possible U.S. Senate race without formally declaring himself a candidate, a recent FOX 5 Atlanta report said.

"The advertisement by Carter references Democrats and President Trump and ran in areas outside of Carter’s congressional district, but the advertisement does not reference Carter as a candidate for the Senate or otherwise indicate that he has made a decision to run for the Senate," the commission wrote in its decision, quoted by FOX 5.

The Georgia Democratic Party filed a complaint with the FEC last August after Carter spent $75,000 on a statewide TV ad that criticized Major League Baseball for moving its All-Star Game out of metro Atlanta after state lawmakers passed restrictive new voting laws, the FOX 5 report said. The Democrats’ complaint alleged Carter used the ad to promote himself as a Senate candidate, adding that most of the money went to airing the ad outside of his southeast Georgia House district. Because Carter never filed paperwork declaring his candidacy for the Senate, the complaint said he was in violation of the law.

Previously, Carter publicly stated that he would stay out of the Senate race if football star Herschel Walker decided to run, the FOX 5 report said. After Walker launched his campaign last year, Carter opted to seek reelection to his 1st District House seat.