Former football coach Derek Dooley stood outside U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff’s Atlanta office Monday afternoon, flanked by a small crowd of supporters and a bank of cameras. Hours earlier, U.S. Rep. Mike Collins arrived at the same Midtown high-rise tower with much the same goal.

The Republican Senate rivals were there to deliver a message, trying to pin the ongoing government shutdown on the shoulders of the Democratic incumbent they hope to challenge.

“That’s not leadership. This is D.C. dysfunction. This is the stuff that drives me bananas, and most other Americans,” said Dooley. Collins, meanwhile, displayed a bright-pink termination notice in front of the office tower, accusing Ossoff of siding with “the radical left” by not voting to reopen the government.

Ossoff is widely viewed as th

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