ATLANTA — When Denise Deal launched a fundraising firm in 2010, her biggest client was her father-in-law, Nathan Deal, who was caught in a fierce Republican primary for governor.
Nathan Deal eventually won, and his daughter-in-law was credited with helping his campaign raise $8.3 million. In the years since, Denise Deal has become a player in Georgia politics, signing up more than two dozen candidates including two congressmen, three Georgia Senate leaders and a host of state lawmakers to Southern Magnolia Capital, a firm she co-owns.
The governor has remained her biggest client, and their business arrangement has prompted questions about whether the governor’s family is benefiting from his office and whether the firm opens doors to the state’s top elected official. It’s clear that campaign payments to a candidate’s family member are legal, although criticism is likely to continue with Denise Deal signed up as the governor’s fundraiser for his re-election campaign.
“For the public, it raises eyebrows anytime a family member is getting paid by a campaign,” said William Perry with Common Cause Georgia, a government watchdog group. But Perry added Denise Deal’s expanded clientele has helped with perceptions: “She has worked actively as a fundraiser for other candidates, and that adds a lot of legitimacy to what she does.”
Denise Deal’s firm has received roughly $791,000 in payments from 27 state and federal candidates since 2010, with nearly half coming from the governor’s campaign or a political action committee with ties to him, according to financial reports. The money includes fees and commissions, but also likely tens of thousands of dollars in reimbursements for event expenses for which the firm paid upfront costs.
via Firm owned by Deal relative finds success, critics | Online Athens.
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