Elon Musk’s potentially illegal million-dollar, petition-signing giveaways to registered voters in battleground states through his America PAC (except Georgia) has thrust the role of dark money in politics into the national spotlight.
It’s an issue that is also affecting local politics. In a contentious state Senate race in the affluent northern Atlanta suburbs of Johns Creek, the shell game of campaign finance, combined with the coarsening of political discourse, has resulted in a toxic mix, sparking death threats against the Democratic challenger.
At a press conference outside a Harris-Walz field office in Sandy Springs, 25-year-old Democratic state Senate candidate Ashwin Ramaswami, surrounded by family and supporters, called on his Republican opponent, state Sen. Shawn Still (R-Norcross) to condemn and disavow inflammatory and false mailers sent to voters in Senate District 48. Still has, so far, refused to do so.
The mailers seize on Ramaswami’s open records request for a list of North Fulton high school students from the Fulton County School Board to falsely accuse him of having “creepy” designs on teenagers. Ramaswami has said it was to organize a voter registration drive and get Gen Z-ers more involved in politics.
One of the mailers bears an official-looking “PUBLIC NOTICE” label in heavy black type and encourages residents to call the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office “if you or your teenager is inappropriately approached by creepy Ashwin Ramaswami.”
Ramaswami, who holds a top-secret federal security clearance from working for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), criticized Still for the “racist and hateful attacks” and accused the mailers of impersonating law enforcement.
He said the mailers have led to death threats against himself and his family. “Shawn Still represents the worst of American politics. He abused his power to impersonate the sheriff’s office, darken my skin in his attack pieces and ask citizens to call the cops on me, his political opponent,” Ramaswami, who is of South Asian descent, told a handful of reporters last week.
“My family and I have received death threats. We’ve had to fear for the safety and security of us, and of that of all the people, both young and old, working across my campaign,” he continued. “Politics should never be about that.”
Ramswami said he’s notified local law enforcement of the threats and taken steps to ensure his family’s safety. The John’s Creek Police Department did not respond to a request for comment. An incident report obtained via a records request shows that on Oct. 18 Ramaswami reported receiving a text message to his campaign on Oct. 13 that read “I will kill you and your whole family.”
The young Democrat, who also holds a law degree from Georgetown University, has said he’s challenging the 52-year-old owner of a pool construction company for the state Senate seat because of another voter disinformation issue — Still’s alleged role as a “fake” Georgia elector in the attempt to subvert the 2020 presidential election.
Still is one of the defendants in the sprawling Fulton County Trump RICO case over election interference. He has maintained his innocence in the case.
The mailers’ origin
Still did not respond to inquiries about who sent the mailers from Atlanta Civic Circle left with his senate office or his campaign. In an Oct. 18 NDTV appearance following Ramswami’s initial condemnatory post on X, he angrily defended the attacks on his opponent, while also attempting to distance himself from the smear campaign.
“A mailer was done by an independent third party that I never saw until it hit mailboxes,” Still told New Delhi TV in the X clip. “It was not done by my campaign. It was done by some outside group.”
So who sent the mailers?
So-called “dark money” expenditures for advertising on a candidate’s behalf can be difficult to trace. They are often funneled through PACs (political action committees), which can accept unlimited donations from shell-company donors under Georgia campaign finance law. PACS can spend an unlimited amount to promote a candidate, as long as they don’t coordinate expenditures with the candidate.
What’s more, Georgia law does not require political advertising, such as attack ads, to disclose what entity is funding them. That lack of transparency makes it hard for people to know who might be behind a certain TV spot or mailer, which creates a lack of accountability for false political speech.
According to the fine print on the “PUBLIC NOTICE” mailer attacking Ramaswami, it was paid for by the Peach State Values PAC. In an Oct. 3 financial disclosure, Peach State Values PAC disclosed spending $4,180 on “campaign paraphernalia/misc support” for Still on Sept. 6.
Peach State Values’ website is nothing more than a landing page with a logo and a slogan: “Promoting the values that make Georgia great.” The Georgia Secretary of State’s Office lists Republican state Sen. Matt Brass (R-Newnan) as the PAC’s CEO, CFO and secretary. Brass did not return an emailed request for comment to his senate office. A request for comment to the email address listed on Peach State Values’ financial disclosure form also was not returned.
But other mailers that similarly smeared Ramaswami as “creepy” had no “paid for” disclosure whatsoever, which, again, is perfectly legal in Georgia. However, they contained at least one clue as to the sender. For bulk mail, the company sending it must use either a permit number or its shorthand name marked in the spot where a postage stamp would otherwise go. This is called a “postal indicia.”
For several of the mailers attacking Ramaswami, the indicia bore the name “LANDMARK,” and the return address was a P.O. box in Alpharetta. When asked for the sender’s identity, the Alpharetta postmaster could determine only that the LANDMARK indicia was not registered to the Alpharetta postal branch. A US Postal Service spokesperson recommended making a Freedom of Information Act request (that can take up to 20 business days to fulfill), which Atlanta Civic Circle has submitted.
But the Ramaswami campaign and a political direct-mail consultant who’s not involved in the race said it’s highly likely the mailers came from Landmark Communications, Inc. an Alpharetta-based political advertising and consulting firm. Landmark Communications did not return a call for comment, nor a tweet directed at the company’s president.
Landmark Communications is “an Atlanta-metro based, direct mail firm that has been sending [mail] in these zip codes for years and years,” said the direct-mail consultant, who declined to be named on a race not involving a client.
“I can pretty much tell you with certainty that they would have designed and sent this,” the consultant said – unless “there is somehow, coincidentally, some other mailing company with ’Landmark’ in their name that is sending mail in this zip code.”
However, Landmark Communications is listed as Still’s top payee in his financial disclosure report to the Georgia Campaign Finance Commission. Still’s campaign had paid over $174,000 to Landmark Communications as of Oct. 19, the most recent disclosure filing date. The disclosures indicate seven payments for mailers, totalling $139,000 between Sept. 23 and Oct. 21.
While Still’s campaign has used Landmark Communications to send political mailers, that doesn’t mean his campaign paid for the one smearing Ramaswami. And under Georgia law, whoever did send that mailer doesn’t have to disclose their identity.
Ramaswami, when asked about reforming Georgia’s campaign finance laws, said that if he’s elected, it would be a priority.
“We have to limit this kind of dark-money spending,” he said. “We have to increase transparency. We have to ensure that these kinds of attacks can never happen again, and that folks are held accountable.”
Georgia Campaign Finance Commission: Expenditures for Shawn Still (R-Norcross)
