Cole Muzio is a common fixture at the Georgia Capitol, where he supports conservative Christian causes, but the SPLC says he needs to register as a lobbyist before he tries to influence lawmakers. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder
The Frontline Policy Council is an conservative Christian nonprofit that holds a lot of sway around the Georgia Capitol.
In 2024, Frontline representatives testified in state committees around 60 times, supporting legislation on issues like school vouchers, limiting transgender participation in girls’ sports and banning controversial school library materials.
But Frontline’s president and founder Cole Muzio general and counsel Chelsea Thompson have come under fire for allegedly lobbying Georgia elected officials without properly registering with the state, according to a complaint filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center last week. The Center’s complaint to the state ethics commission alleges that Muzio has not registered as a lobbyist since 2022 and Thomspon has never registered. Another Frontline employee, Taylor Hawkins, has registered to lobby on Frontline’s behalf.
The complaint cites photographs, social media posts and promotional material describing Muzio and Thompson’s efforts to influence legislation, including a section on the organization’s website that describes Muzio as having registered as a lobbyist. The SPLC designates Frontline as an anti-LGBTQ hate group.
Frontline Policy Council is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. According to the IRS, a 501(c)(3) may lose its tax exempt status if it engages in too much lobbying activity. Under the same Frontline umbrella is Frontline Policy Action, a 501(c)4 that is freer to lobby.
R.G. Cravens, a researcher with the SPLC, said all citizens have the right to testify at public hearings and express their demands to lawmakers, but Frontline enjoys access that regular folks do not.
Thompson was seen in the Capitol as recently as Thursday, speaking with GOP senators after a Senate committee hearing on transgender sports participation.
“The level of access is completely different for somebody like a Frontline and for the mom of a trans kid, the level of access to lawmakers is way different,” Cravens said. “The level of influence, I think, is probably different too for groups that have the money and capacity to do it.”
The Frontline Policy Council spent nearly $526,000 in the state fiscal year ending in June 2023, according to tax filings.
An accurate appraisal of how that money was spent could help Georgians understand why lawmakers pass the laws that they do, Cravens said.
“(Lobbyists) have to file reports for when they spend money during the legislative session, so if you spend money to influence a decision, you have to tell people, you have to disclose that,” he said. “That’s part of transparency in the democratic process.”
Cravens said lobbyists and lawmakers alike should embrace transparency to give voters confidence that the legislation they pass was come by honestly.
“That’s why a lot of ethics laws and a lot of ethics policies, like the governor’s, say they even want to prevent the appearance of conflicts of interest, because even the just the appearance of a conflict of interest can call into question the legitimacy of the laws that you’re passing because you just don’t know if they were unduly influenced,” he said.
The Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance commission, formerly known as the State Ethics Commission, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Cravens said the commission can choose to investigate and potentially impose a financial penalty.
Muzio said everything Frontline does is above board and alleged the SPLC’s complaint was politically motivated.
“They’re concerned about the effect that our organization is having because we’re winning on the issues, and what they’re doing is to distract from that,” he said in a phone call Friday. “There was a huge win behind our issues just a couple weeks ago with the election. The voters across this country repudiated everything that the Southern Poverty Law Center stands for and so now they’re resorting to trying to somehow make some weird sort of allegation that we’re not being transparent.”
Muzio said he will be glad to register as a lobbyist if the ethics commission tells him to, but he’s planning on spending less time at the Capitol during next year’s session, opting to work on strategizing from outside the Gold Dome.
“I don’t plan much of any time at the Capitol this year, that’s not my role with our team,” he said. “We’ve got big plans for how we’re trying to affect change across Georgia. Thankfully, we’ve been blessed. We’re growing. We’ve got team members that will be down there. Chelsea will be registered. Her role has shifted within our team. She will be a primary lobbyist for us. She wasn’t last year. She was operating in a legal advisory role. But she’ll be a registered lobbyist this year.”
Frontline’s legislative priorities for next year include several items that could be controversial if they are taken up, including a ban on puberty blockers for transgender minors, a prohibition on vaccine mandates and a religious freedom act detractors say would be a license to discriminate against LGBTQ people.
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