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Post-Platner Blame Games & Mike Collins’s Staffing Headaches

As Democrats sift through the wreckage of Graham Platner’s campaign, the blame is falling on Morris Katz, the self-styled wunderkind who helped recruit him. Across the aisle, Mike Collins is on his third chief of staff in six months, a revolving door that has even Republicans questioning his hiring.

Morris Katz
Morris Katz at City Hall in New York, New York, January 2026. Photo: Adam Gray/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Marianna Sotomayor
&
Leigh Ann Caldwell
July 9, 2026

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While candidates accused of egregious misconduct are expected to face blowback, strategists rarely become targets. But in the aftermath of Graham Platner’s implosion, a number of veteran Democratic operatives are putting the blame on Morris Katz, the self-styled wunderkind and former Mamdani campaign advisor who helped recruit the Nazi-tattooed alleged rapist. (Platner has denied both the sexual misconduct accusations and knowledge that his tattoo was Nazi-affiliated.)