Portland, ME – Today, Maine Democrats held a press conference outside of Susan Collins’ office in Portland to call out her corruption in the wake of the bombshell reporting that Collins was being circled by the FBI for a pay-to-play scheme before Donald Trump’s administration shut down the investigation and that Collins’ Super PACs are still taking millions in dark money from shadowy donors. At the press conference, Democrats brought a copy of the check her Super PAC received from Navatek CEO Martin Kao before she steered millions in federal funding to his company as a gift to remind Mainers who Collins really answers to.
“Today, we brought Senator Collins a gift,” said Jordan Wood, anti-corruption advocate. “This is a copy of the $150,000 check that her super PAC, run by her close associate Scott Reed, solicited and accepted from a shell company that Martin Kao created while he was seeking millions in federal funding for his company. The FEC [agreed] contribution [was] illegal. The name on this check is a front, as it shows you who Susan Collins really thinks she answers to.”
“But the truth is, she answers to us, the people of Maine,” said Wood. “I grew up in Lewiston, the son of a teacher and a pastor. The people I grew up with don’t have shell companies, high-paid lobbyists, or millions of dollars. So on November 3rd, remember those people that Susan Collins is ignoring and forgetting. We need a senator who is committed to serving and representing us only, not whoever is writing the biggest check.”
“The revelations of Susan Collins’ pay-to-play scheme raise a lot of questions. Perhaps the biggest, most disturbing one is how we can be sure that this is the only time it has happened,” said former State Senator Rebecca Millett. “We are dropping off this check today to remind Collins that she has lost our trust. We know she doesn’t answer to us. The real question is just how many corporate donors she does answer to.”
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