Two (Unethical) Peas in a Pod: Collins Campaigns with Ethics Scandal-Plagued Gaetz

Like Gaetz, Collins has history of alleged ethics violations while serving a special interest-backed agenda in the House

ATLANTA — Today, Congressman Doug Collins hit the campaign trail with a Florida Congressman with whom he has a lot in common: both provoke “a special type of vitriol” among Georgia Republicans — and both have a history of ethically dubious behavior.

While Gaetz has a long record of ethical improprieties helping himself and his friends at taxpayer expense, Collins also has faced multiple ethics complaints from members of both parties over his own ethical issues, including improper use of House floor proceedings for his campaign. 

And Collins was recently caught in an “ethics no-no” after taking materials from his taxpayer-funded congressional website and using them for his Senate campaign, “seemingly a violation of House Ethics rules.” Even worse: the language Collins “directly copied” focused on reproductive choice — a supposedly “crucial part of his Senate campaign” that set up another ethical red flag for him.

“It’s nice to see that Congressmen Doug Collins and Matt Gaetz have been able to bond so well over their shared history of potential ethics violations,” said Alex Floyd, spokesman for the Democratic Party of Georgia. “But regardless of how Floridians may feel about it, Georgians deserve better than a scandal-plagued Congressman representing them in Washington.”

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