Two candidates challenging Doug Collins for the 9th District seat in Congress have signed a letter to the Federal Election Commission claiming Collins violated several regulations.
Mike Scupin and Bernie Fontaine both signed the letter, which claims Collins willingly and knowingly violated the following regulation: "On a public communication that is authorized and paid for by a candidate or his/her campaign committee, the disclaimer notice must identify who paid for the message."
The challengers allege that several articles published on Zpolitics.com were disparaging or critical of fellow challenge Paul Broun, implying to readers that the stories were news articles and therefore, unbiased.
"It looks to me that there's something that's not quite kosher going on here," said Scupin in a phone interview.
Collins' campaign responded to those allegations with the following statement:
"The complaint is baseless and has no merit in fact. This is nothing more than two of my opponents trying to generate much needed coverage for their struggling campaigns six weeks out from an election."
The challengers allege that Zpolitics.com is the personal property of Jason "Jay" Williams, owner of The Stoneridge Group LLC, a campaign firm involved in Collins' past campaigns.
"We expect the news media to provide accurate news, and this (Zpolitics.com) tends to lead away from that," said Fontaine, speaking on WDUN's Morning Talk program Tuesday morning.
The allegations include multiple articles that include disparaging remarks about Broun, presented as an unbiased news source, were paid for by Collins. The allegations also state that one of the articles contained information only Collins knew about, directly linking him to what is described in the letter as "fake news."
