PRESS RELEASE Election News April 19, 2016

FEC Complaint against Collins, ZPolitics Reveals Deception

ATLANTA GA – On April 11, two Georgia 9th District U.S. Congressional candidates filed a joint complaint with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) against incumbent Doug Collins, his campaign consulting firm, the Stoneridge Group and their web site Zpolitics.com. The complaint filed by Mike Scupin and Bernie Fontaine contends that the Stoneridge Group used their ZPolitics site to run hard hitting political ads “disguised” as news stories to help the Collins campaign. Both are owned by Jason “Jay” Williams, a campaign consultant for Doug Collins.

The letter cited three attack ads run without campaign disclosures by ZPolitics against another candidate, former Rep. Paul Broun. The attacks began two days after Dr. Broun gave Doug Collins a private courtesy call to tell him that he was moving into the district and challenging him for the seat. Scupin and Fontaine contend the attack stories contained information about Broun’s candidacy that only Doug Collins would have known from his private call with Dr. Broun.

One “news story” offered a sneak preview of Collins’ campaign ad against Broun. That painted the former doctor as a career politician and part of the establishment. Ironically, all four Collins opponents claim that he is the establishment politician in the race. One campaign ad from Mike Scupin cites Collins voting record as consistently supporting bad legislation advocated by the House leadership.

ZPolitics.com was originally launched by Martha Zoeller, and has a track record as a North Georgia mouthpiece for the Republican establishment. Jay Williams and his group have served as political consultants for David Ralston, and . ZPolitics.com recently published hit pieces on Sam Snider and Derrick Grayson who are opposing Ralston and Isakson, respectively. Since the candidate filing date, ZPolitics.com coverage has been essentially 100% positive for Collins, 100% negative of Broun and 0% for Mike Scupin, Bernie Fontaine and Roger Fitzpatrick whose totals equaled Collins support in a recent WDUN poll.

ZPolitics.com managing editor, Christy Riggins, responded to a recent AJC inquiry by claiming that she wrote the attack stories, she owns ZPolitics LLC, and she has “full editorial control”. Riggins stated she has never met Collins but offered no explanation as to how she knew the content of Collins’ private phone call with Dr. Broun for her stories. Riggins has never been identified as an owner and is listed as a manager by the Secretary of State. Public domain ownership records easily accessible from Whois.com prove that Jay Williams is the owner of ZPolitics.com.