Georgia's 10th district Congressional representative, "MTG with a mullet" Mike Collins has thrown his trucker hat into the ring to seek the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate in 2026. He hopes, of course, to unseat Senator Jon Ossoff, and cast the Democrat (along with Reverend Senator Raphael Warnock) as working for "California crazies or New York nut jobs."

He stepped in not longer Governor Brian Kemp informed him he'd be backing the (potential, still, I guess) campaign of former college football coach Derek Dooley. They're lifelong friends, after all, but Dooley's conservative bonafides are already coming into question in right wing media.

There's this concept that Kemp was trying to play "kingmaker" (does he really have that kind of sawy herding cats with Georgia GOP voters, though?) and keep the Senate primary race from being a bitter fight. Good luck with that.

For what it's worth, I happen to think Georgia Democrats might flex a little "ranked choice" and cross party lines to choose the lesser of all the evils that'll be on that ballot as a de facto "second choice."

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"The Georgia Gang" panelist (and Georgia WIN List executive director) Melita Easters brought an interesting point to the political conversation ... there seem to be a lot of "daddy issues" in the Georgia GOP. Between the Derek Dooley (son of UGA football coaching legend Vince Dooley) and Lt. Governor Burt Jones and his daddy's influence (and wealth) ... it's just hard to ignore.

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Atlanta growth is "slowing" (still growing, but slower), as noted in a Wall Street Journal article, and noted on Sunday's "The Georgia Gang" as well. Housing costs and woeful traffic affecting "quality of life." With an abundance of office space available, post-pandemic, it's not easy converting office buildings to residential use, as natural as that seems to be a solution for a lack of housing supply.

A for the traffic issue, I go right back to the well insisting it's past-due time for someone to champion connecting the entire state with high speed rail and networking to the airport here, strengthening MARTA's usability and convincing Atlanta's mayor (and Atlanta Regional Commission chair) to reconsider his position on Beltline Rail necessity where it's already necessary to be first.