'Concerning': Ex-Biden official under fire as pay-to-play allegations emerge in top gubernatorial race

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Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, a Democrat running for governor in Georgia, has faced ethics-related scrutiny during her time in government, but that hasn't stopped Bottoms' ambition for higher office.   

Before launching her gubernatorial bid, Bottoms drew criticism in Atlanta over her use of public resources while serving in city government — from taxpayer-funded mailers packed with photos of herself to city-paid travel expenses that initially covered her husband’s Super Bowl airfare. 

Bottoms also drew criticism over her ties to a contractor that later landed lucrative city contracts after she signed an initial consulting contract with the firm while leading the Atlanta Fulton County Recreation Authority (AFCRA) and just days before leaving the city council as she was preparing to become mayor, with the company’s CEO later donating to and fundraising for her campaign.

Even with Atlanta's history of corruption scandals, former Atlanta City Council leader Jennifer Ide, who served as the head of a city council ethics committee while Bottoms was mayor, said the Democratic gubernatorial hopeful's past scandals, in particular her alleged pay-to-play scheme with a contractor, should be "concerning" for voters.

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Keisha Lance Bottoms, former mayor of Atlanta, at Hotel Phoenix in Atlanta, Georgia, US, on Wednesday, March 18, 2026.  (Matt Odom/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

"I mean, I think it's concerning," Ide told Fox News Digital. "I don't think that the voters want to feel like special interests impact the outcome of an election."

As executive director of AFCRA, a position she held that earned her a six-figure salary even while also serving on the city council and running for mayor, Bottoms signed the first of three contracts for a company called Con-Real to do work for the city. The first contract, awarded in April 2017, was less than $100,000, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Just days later, she exited office as her mayoral run was heating up.

Meanwhile, in June 2017, roughly two months later, Con-Real won a second $2.4 million contract, despite the company's bid being about twice what its competitor bid, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The outlet added that both contracts appeared to have been executed without the recreation authority's board voting to approve it.    

Ide said the absence of board approval was among the issues that made the Con-Real contracts appear troubling to people in Atlanta government, though she said she was not familiar enough with AFCRA’s rules to say definitively whether any formal procurement rule had been broken. However, according to Kyle Gomez-Leineweber, policy director at watchdog Common Cause Georgia, AFCRA did amend its contracting process following the controversy with Bottoms.

"There were serious concerns that were raised around ethics," he added.

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Con-Real founder and CEO, Gerald Alley, reportedly held a fundraiser for Bottoms' mayoral campaign in August 2017, and campaign finance records showed he also donated close to $4,000 to Bottoms' mayoral campaign just days after winning the lucrative arena contract.

Keisha Lance Bottoms, former mayor of the city of Atlanta, attends the Cancer Moonshot event on October 24, 2022 in Washington, D.C. (Getty Images)

The subsequent year, in 2018, while Bottoms was mayor, Con-Real won a third contract for $1.4 million. Again, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, they were the highest bidder. 

"It sure looked fishy that Con-Real l was not the lowest bidder," Ide pointed out. "I don't know exactly what the procurement rules are for the recreation authority but for the city the lowest responsive bidder is who would have needed to have been selected."  

In June 2025, less than a month after Bottoms announced her bid for governor, Alley donated the maximum allowable amount for a primary election of $8,400, campaign finance records show.

"I really believe that as people start to dig under the surface, they’re going to see that she’s not fit for office," Humberto Garcia, a Democrat who lives in Atlanta and founded the anti-Buckhead City movement Neighbors for a United Atlanta, said.

Vehicles travel along a highway in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, US, on Wednesday, June 28, 2023. (Photographer: Alyssa Pointer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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Beyond the Con-Real matter, Bottoms’ record already includes a string of ethics-related incidents, including a $37,000 state ethics fine over campaign-finance violations, questions over taxpayer-funded campaign-season mailers packed with photos of herself, and backlash over using public funds for certain expenses, including airfare for her husband’s Super Bowl trip and thousands of dollars in limousine spending.

Both Ide and Garcia lamented that Bottoms, as mayor, was "absent-minded," and they questioned whether she would do what is in the best interest for Georgians if elected governor. 

"If you’re going to run for the highest office in the state, there needs to be no questions about whether you’re being influenced by your campaign donations in that kind of way," Ide told Fox News Digital.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Bottoms' campaign and Con-Real but did not receive a response.

The Democratic primary for Georgia's gubernatorial race will take place on May 19. Currently, Bottoms is leading in most major polls, with former Georgia General Assemblyman and Chief Executive Officer of DeKalb County Michael Thurmond coming in second in many of the same polls, per The New York Times.