Mike Collins struggles to outrun his aides’ problematic posts

Today’s newsletter highlights

• Test your knowledge with our news quiz.
• Keisha Lance Bottoms’ ethics proposal silences lawmakers.
• Georgia adopts federal fuel waiver in hopes of easing cost pressure.

Here we go again

U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, seen here at a news conference in Norcross on Tuesday. (Jason Getz/AJC)

U.S. Rep. Mike Collins keeps trying to pivot away from the controversies surrounding people in his political orbit. And each time he tries, another one seems to surface.

This time, it’s a Washington Post report detailing how the Republican U.S. Senate nominee’s former fundraising consultant posted Ku Klux Klan and Nazi imagery — including a picture of himself wearing a KKK robe.

That followed AJC reporting that Collins’ son-in-law, who praised Hitler and posted racist and hate-filled remarks, is now arguing that women should not have the right to vote.

One former Collins chief of staff tried to secure the release of a Holocaust denier from prison. Another is at the center of a pending House Ethics Committee investigation into whether his office misused taxpayer dollars.

And Collins himself has a history of social media posts his critics describe as hate-filled and xenophobic, including tweeting “Never was a second thought” to an antisemitic account that attacked a Jewish journalist.

U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff has seized on all of it to portray Collins as a “bigoted” MAGA loyalist unfit for office. On Thursday, he called the latest report “disgraceful and disqualifying.”

Collins has urged voters to judge him by his own actions, not those of the people around him, as he tries to frame Ossoff as out of touch. But the explanations are getting harder to separate from the pattern that’s emerging.

Democratic state Rep. Esther Panitch, the sole Jewish state legislator, has criticized Ossoff’s votes to limit arms sales to Israel. But she used the latest report to demonstrate why she’s backing Ossoff regardless, while questioning why Collins hasn’t more forcefully condemned antisemitism and white nationalism.

“That is why these men keep turning up around him. Not by accident. They have watched what happens when they stop hiding what they are, and what happens is nothing. They feel comfortable there. They were given every reason to,” she said.

Now Republicans are bracing for the next damaging revelation. Ossoff’s research teams say they have already uncovered plenty of material that Collins’ GOP rivals never did. At his latest rally, Ossoff warned that Collins’ problems were only beginning.

“If you think what’s come out so far about Mike is bad,” he said, “there’s more and worse on the way.”

Friday news quiz

Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America in Ellabell, seen here in May. (Hyosub Shin/AJC)

Good morning! How closely did you follow the news this week? Find out by taking our quiz. You’ll find the answers at the end of the newsletter.

Democratic nominee for governor Keisha Lance Bottoms confronted Republican nominee Rick Jackson outside of a business event. What was she upset about?

• A) The Jackson campaign had commandeered the green room Bottoms and her aides were supposed to use for the event.
• B) Jackson had touted an endorsement from one of Bottoms’ allies that turned out not to be true.
• C) Jackson’s energy policy proposal lifted passages from Bottoms’ proposal.
• D) A Jackson campaign ad noting taxpayers paid thousands of dollars to buy a Super Bowl ticket for Bottoms’ husband.

Hyundai Motor CEO José Muñoz told CNBC the company could greatly expand production at its Metaplant near Savannah. What is one reason he gave for why?

• A) New tax incentives approved by the state Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp.
• B) Tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump that increase the cost of imports.
• C) A new contract to provide electric vehicles for the Georgia Ports Authority.
• D) A new investment by some Georgia-based companies.

The Georgia Supreme Court announced this week it will no longer take most appeals in murder cases. Who pushed back against this decision?

• A) The Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
• B) The American Civil Liberties Union.
• C) The Georgia Court of Appeals.
• D) The chairs of the Georgia House and Senate Judiciary Committees.

A U.S. Supreme Court decision this week could change how Georgians vote. What would it impact?

• A) Absentee ballots.
• B) Early, in-person voting.
• C) Voter registration.
• D) Electronic voting machines.

No. 6

Keisha Lance Bottoms is joined by Georgia legislators as she unveils her ethics and government transparency plan in Atlanta on Thursday. (Ben Gray for the AJC)

Each time Keisha Lance Bottoms ticked through another plank of her ethics agenda on Thursday, the Democratic lawmakers surrounding her responded with enthusiastic applause.

Until she got to No. 6.

“We will apply the Georgia Open Records Act to the General Assembly,” the Democratic nominee for governor said.

Then came a brief, awkward pause. A few furtive glances and smiles. And finally laughter.

There’s a reason for the delayed reaction.

Georgia lawmakers have long exempted themselves from the state’s open records laws, meaning the public can’t use the same process to obtain lawmakers’ correspondence that applies to the governor, executive agencies and local governments.

Bottoms wants to remove that shield.

The former Atlanta mayor said she’s accustomed to getting those requests from the AJC and argued that extending the law would be “helpful to state government” by promoting more transparency.

She also acknowledged that her proposal will encounter some resistance under the Gold Dome.

“I recognize that, God willing, when I serve as governor, I am the immigrant in the foreign land,” she said. “I will be the one who’s new to the state Capitol, so I’m going to look for their direction.”

The transparency plan was the final piece of a six-part ethics package Bottoms unveiled.

She also pledged to:

• Separate the governor’s business interests from state business.
• Require candidates for governor to divest controlling interests in companies doing business with the state.
• Require explanations for no-bid state contracts.
• Make state spending easier to track.
• Put more information about the contracting process online.

So long, summer

Motorists make their way onto GA 400 northbound. (John Spink/AJC)

Summer is ending early, at least from a Georgia regulatory perspective.

Gasoline is more expensive in the summer because state and federal regulators enforce a “summer blend” of fuel that reduces smog.

The summer blend usually ends in mid September. But with fuel prices rising amid the U.S. war with Iran, the Trump administration issued a waiver to end the blend on Sept. 1. Thursday, Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper announced the state would do the same thing.

“By adopting this federal waiver, we’re able to increase the available supply of fuel, while maintaining strict quality standards and certifying pumps across the state to ensure Georgians get what they pay for,” Harper said.

All ears

State Rep. Marvin Lim, D-Norcross, seen here at the state Capitol last year. (Adam Beam/AJC)

It never hurts to ask.

Georgia has a program that lets people add an emergency contact to their file at the Department of Driver Services. The idea is if you’re seriously hurt in a car accident and your phone is locked, authorities can contact your family.

A constituent in state Rep. Marvin Lim’s district noticed Georgia has a program but didn’t do much to promote it. He asked Lim about it, and the state launched a promotional campaign in June.

“This is one of those small things that can make a very real difference when something goes wrong,” said Lim, D-Norcross.

Listen up

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Ad watch

Republican nominee for governor Rick Jackson walks to the stage during his rally in Columbus last week. (Abbey Cutrer/AJC)

Bottoms’ campaign for governor launched a new ad this morning that spotlights Republican nominee Rick Jackson’s pledge “never to do business with the state of Georgia” even though one of his healthcare firms renewed a state contract through the middle of next year.

The narrator cuts in: “Slick Rick got caught” and goes onto accuse him of “secretly signing contracts to make millions more off taxpayers like you.”

Jackson has said that if he wins in November he’ll use a clause in the agreement to terminate the contract.