As Ed pointed out yesterday, Stacey Abrams campaign raised a lot of money for her second run for governor of Georgia. Yet at the end of it she not only lost by 8 points but wound up more than a million in debt to various vendors. As Ed asked in the conclusion of his post “Where did the money go?” Today the Atlanta Journal Constitution published a story that attempts to answer that question. And the answer seems to be a combination of lavish spending and bad planning.
Several staffers said the campaign rented a home near Piedmont Park to be a “hype house” for TikTok videos that wound up largely neglected. Some aides commandeered the vacant five-bedroom craftsman-style house, now available to rent at $12,500 a month, as a makeshift office.
A pop-up shop and “swag truck” were assigned to dispense merchandise, such as T-shirts and hoodies, to win over young voters. But staffers grumbled that there was no apparent strategy behind the giveaways, which they said seemed careless and costly.
Others vented about excessive spending on polls that were disregarded and consultants with confusing or conflicting roles within the sprawling operation…
“It’s incredibly bad planning, and it shows where their values are at,” a senior Democratic official said of the spending, which will come into finer detail when financial disclosures are due in January. “You can’t look up one day and realize you can’t pay the bills.”
The lavish spending throughout the campaign meant that in the final two weeks of the race, as early voting was taking place, she had to cut her spending on TV ads dramatically. Abrams’ campaign manager Lauren Groh-Wargo spun the last minute pull back as part of a shift toward more digital outreach but has since admitted they campaign was out of money. The story closes on one exasperated former consultant who clearly didn’t approve of Abrams going on a new publicity tour while her campaign is still in debt. The unnamed consultant told the paper, “I’m done with this. We have vendors still waiting to be paid.”
Meanwhile, Stacey Abrams has moved on to a new Discovery+ documentary with Selena Gomez.
Won’t Be Silent, directed by Kristi Jacobson, will celebrate songs from female artists that have impacted the world on a variety of issues. “The film is a love letter to the women in music who have used their voices to change the course of history with their art and activism,” the logline reads…
Abrams added: “Throughout history, women in music have used their art as activism by bringing attention to issues impacting our nation and world. “Won’t Be Silent is a celebration of the artists who have contributed to bettering the world through their timeless music.”
Last week Abrams was making the rounds to sell her new children’s book.
Finding solace in books and community among book lovers is the theme of her new children’s book “Stacey’s Remarkable Books,” available Dec. 13.
Throughout the 18 pages, the title character reads during recess instead of playing with the other students. But one by one, the other students join her in reading and they start a book club where they each pick books in their home languages and teach each other words.
The new release is a followup to her 2021 children’s book “Stacey’s Extraordinary Words,” in which young Stacey competes in a spelling bee. Abrams is also the author of romance novels and political thrillers, including the recent “While Justice Sleeps.”
For her sake I hope Abrams manages her own money a little better than she managed her campaign funds.
