Senator Susan Collins is closing out a very rough week that began with a full-page ad from a constituent and ended with new polling that shows her approval among Mainers continuing to decline.
Collins’ approval is at an “all-time low” after her votes to stack the courts with far-right judges, jeopardize coverage for pre-existing conditions, and pass a tax giveaway to massive corporations have cost her support among key constituencies that once supported her. She is now turning to corporate PACs and Washington Republicans for help as nonpartisan elections experts move the race in Democrats’ direction.
Here’s a look at how the week unraveled:
Senator Collins’ terrible week began on Sunday, when one of her constituents took out a full-page ad in the Portland Press-Herald, calling out Collins for refusing to share her views on a single issue he asked about:
Tuesday featured a new poll that showed Senator Collins “deeply underwater,” which isn’t exactly news to the out-of-touch incumbent, who is already relying on out-of-state outside groups to try to boost her popularity amidst “bipartisan anger” from frustrated Mainers. Senator Collins also filed her Q3 fundraising report and was outraised by one of her Democratic opponents.
On Wednesday, the Washington Examiner reported that Mitch McConnell and his cadre of outside groups were stockpiling millions of dollars to prop up “McConnell’s most endangered incumbents” -- including none other than Senator Susan Collins.
The bad news came in twos on Thursday, when new Morning Consult polling showed that Collins’ approval had fallen -- again -- and that she remains the second-most unpopular Senator in the country, following only Mitch McConnell.
Then, new analysis of Senator Collins’ latest FEC filing showed that she’s collected more than $1.1 million in corporate PAC donations just this cycle (more than four times as much as Collins has raised from Mainers) and more than $5.3 million since she’s been in office -- a far cry from when Collins first ran for Senate more than 20 years ago and pledged to rein in those same kinds of contributions.
If Senator Collins thought Friday would be any better, boy was she wrong. A scathing new op-ed in the Press-Herald this morning slams Collins’ failure to bring down insulin costs for Mainers with Type 1 diabetes. Coming full circle from where the week began, the op-ed spotlights Senator Collins’ harmful and out-of-touch record on a wide range of issues, writing:
“[Collins’] actions in the last few years have contributed to the problem. Her vote for the Republican tax plan in 2017 allowed Eli Lilly, one of the three major producers of insulin, to pay no federal taxes in 2018. This year they’ve spent more on marketing and sales than they have on research and development (according to their own quarterly reports). They’ve also spent over $1 million on lobbying. Collins has accepted money from Eli Lilly. How much doesn’t matter; $1 is too much if it comes at the cost of my son’s life.”
The weekend’s just around the corner, but as Collins gears up for another McConnell-led bailout of her increasingly precarious re-election campaign on Monday, it doesn’t seem like things will be looking up for the Senator anytime soon.
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