Mike Collins’ staff problems start at the top
Something is off with U.S. Rep. Mike Collins and the company he keeps. Although he is the front-runner for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in Georgia, he keeps making headlines for all the wrong reasons.
Nearly all of them are blunders, offenses or revelations about the people Collins has put in top positions in his House office, his campaign office or both.
Collins’ biggest shake-up came last week when the congressman cut ties with campaign manager and longtime aide Brandon Phillips after Collins’ campaign X account posted a deeply offensive and now-deleted comment about the wife of a strategist working for rival Derek Dooley’s Senate campaign.
The comment called the Dooley strategist “Matt Lauer’s sloppy seconds” and “a Yankee with poor judgment in women and GA politics.”
The woman in question was author Brooke Nevils, the wife of GOP strategist Luke Thompson, who came forward recently with allegations of being raped by former TODAY show host Matt Lauer and attempting suicide in the aftermath.
Ironically, or sadly, Nevils testified on Capitol Hill a week before Collins’ campaign post about sexual misconduct, sexual assault and why it’s so hard for people without power to speak out about abuse by people who have it. “I just talked about all of that, and they listened, and they asked wonderful questions, and they’re working on it,” she said that day.
Fast-forward a week, and she said the Collins’ campaign post left her “in the fetal position in my office.”
Winning at all costs
For anyone who knew Phillips’ work, the social media episode was not only predictable but completely inevitable from the jagged-edged operative. Along with allegations of violent run-ins, bar fights, dog-kicking and public outbursts, Phillips also led Collins’ House office as it cycled through a series of controversies over other offensive social media posts and serious ethics charges.
But Phillips also has a track record of winning campaigns with his sharp elbows, which Georgia Republicans have used to great advantage. This campaign cycle alone, Phillips has worked for Rick Jackson, U.S. Rep. Clay Fuller, state Sen. Greg Dolezal’s campaign for lieutenant governor and, of course, as Collins’ campaign manager.
But it turns out that winning at all costs has a cost, including now for Collins.
The backlash for the X comment was immediate, but it didn’t really focus on Phillips, who was essentially doing what he’d been hired for. The backlash instead focused on Collins, who should have seen this coming all along.
WSB radio’s Shelley Wynter, a close ally of Gov. Brian Kemp, went on the air to declare he’d rather vote for Jon Ossoff for Senate than Collins if Dooley is not the GOP nominee.
“That kind of behavior, that kind of campaign — and it’s certainly not the first time — will never, ever get my vote,” Wynter said.
Conservative radio host Erick Erickson raised the possibility that, in addition to “this kind of character being disgusting,” the Phillips’ brand of online assaults might actually start losing races for Republicans on the big stage, not winning them.
“Do you really think if they’re doing that in a Republican primary, they’re going to have the self-control and discipline to beat Jon Ossoff in a general election? It’s only a matter of time before they make jokes about Ossoff being a Jew.”
Collins apologized publicly for the comment about Nevils last week and announced what he called “staffing changes” to make sure “this type of thing never happens again.”
Questions of judgment
But the episode raised real questions about Collins’ leadership and judgment, particularly since Phillips is also at the center of the ongoing House Ethics Committee investigation into Collins’ office for potential misuse of public funds.
The investigation follows a 6-0 finding by the Office of Congressional Conduct, which includes former Georgia Republicans Jody Hice and Lynn Westmoreland, that there is “substantial reason to believe that Rep. Collins used congressional resources for unofficial or otherwise unauthorized purposes.” That included allegedly paying Phillips’ girlfriend more than $10,000 for an internship she never showed up for.
The OCC also recommended subpoenas for Collins and Phillips, since both refused to be interviewed or provide information to the OCC during its probe.
The Collins campaign also did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this column.
Unfortunately, Collins’ questionable staffing choices haven’t been limited to Phillips. To fill the role of chief of staff in Phillips’ absence, Collins promoted longtime Capitol Hill staffer Kip Talley, who was also chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz during the years that the House Committee on Ethics alleged the Florida Republican engaged in a series of unethical and illegal acts.
This week, Slate reported that Talley was also a part of a group chat with well-known white nationalists describing his efforts to use “the levers of the legislative branch” to free a Holocaust denier from prison.
Collins also had William Paul on staff last year as his House digital director. Paul, the son of U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, made news this month for a drunken antisemitic rant against U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) in a Washington bar. Lawler, who is Catholic, called Paul’s behavior “disgusting.”
It starts at the top
It’s a long-held belief that the character of any Capitol Hill office starts and ends with the member whose name is on the door. Collins’ father, the late U.S. Rep. Mac Collins, was an example of that, in the best way possible.
I have no idea if GOP voters will care enough about a Collins staffer’s tweet in May to punish Collins in an election in November, if he, in fact, gets that far. And this embarrassment may also be clarifying enough that Collins finds a way to right the ship for the rest of his staff, who are doing excellent work in the shadows of this fiasco.
But the X episode is bigger than any single election. It’s about a campaign culture that would make a staffer on the Collins campaign think that a post mocking a rape victim was not just acceptable, but desirable.
The young people who work for Collins deserve so much better than all of this. So does Brooke Nevils. And so do the people of Georgia.
About the Author
Patricia Murphy is the AJC's senior political columnist. She was previously a nationally syndicated columnist for CQ Roll Call, national political reporter for the Daily Beast and Politics Daily, and wrote for The Washington Post and Garden & Gun. She graduated from Vanderbilt and holds a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University.
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