Dear ‘career politician’ Paul Broun: Welcome to the 9th District. Best regards, Doug Collins

Photo by Matt Roth Representative Doug Collins, R-Ga., addresses the witnesses at a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing on new testimony from whistleblowers on the Benghazi attack at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, May 08, 2013. Rep. Doug Collins, R-Gainesville, in 2013. (AJC file)

Photo by Matt Roth Representative Doug Collins, R-Ga., addresses the witnesses at a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing on new testimony from whistleblowers on the Benghazi attack at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, May 08, 2013. Rep. Doug Collins, R-Gainesville, in 2013. (AJC file)

Former congressman Paul Broun, formerly of Athens, filed his qualifying papers today for a GOP primary challenge to incumbent U.S. Rep. Doug Collins of Gainesville, a two-termer.

The Collins campaign intends to welcome Broun with a radio ad played throughout north Georgia, beginning Friday – and touching on his effort to establish residency and a pair of past controversies. Listen to it here:

A partial transcript -- the links are ours:

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What would David Perdue think?  Influential billionaires went to Perdue's home base of Sea Island this week for a conference over how to stop Donald Trump. From the Huffington Post:

Rove's presentation was on the subject of how William McKinley won in 1896, according to an agenda subsequently obtained by HuffPost. McKinley's campaign manager, Mark Hanna, is often referred to as the first Karl Rove -- the first true political operative in the U.S. system. McKinley was running against William Jennings Bryan, a populist and a bigot who riled up the masses by assailing coastal elites and bankers. The race took place in the first Gilded Age. In today's Gilded Age, the parallels are clear. 

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Former state senator Regina Thomas, who rumbled about a potential bid for a U.S. Senate seat over the weekend, has now declared herself out of the race. And she said it has nothing to do with the emergence of Jim Barksdale, the party- backed investment guru who is challenging Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson.

Instead, she said a run is just not "feasible."

"If I had gotten out earlier, I would have run but we didn't have enough time," said Thomas. "I think we have enough in the hunt and that we should have a good candidate. But I don't know any of them."

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Over the last year, hundreds of Georgia residents testified at hearings across the state last year about the challenges kinship-care providers, primarily grandparents, face raising the nearly 128,000 grandchildren in Georgia in the primary care of family members other than their parents.

And their vivid testimony was revealing. Read more here.