If Senator Susan Collins wants to rebuild her record-low support or shore up her eroded standing among Mainers, you wouldn’t know it from how she’s fundraising ahead of her toughest reelection. 

 

Senator Collins just announced that her campaign raised $2.1 million in Q3 -- a sum she reached by fundraising off her Kavanaugh vote, turning to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and President Trump’s “judge whisperer,” and continuing to rely on corporate special interests and out-of-state allies to prop up her increasingly precarious campaign. 

 

“Senator Collins’ out-of-state fundraising is another example of how she has changed and is now more focused on serving the special interests than Mainers,” said Maine Democratic Party Chair Kathleen Marra. “It says a lot that since taking some of her most out-of-touch and harmful votes, Senator Collins has seen some of her biggest checks.”

 

This is far from the first time Senator Collins has put her special interest allies and out-of-state supporters ahead of Mainers -- Collins had her best fundraising quarter ever after voting to confirm Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court and just 3% of her campaign cash in the first half of 2019 came from Mainers.

 

Here are some highlights from what we know about Senator Collins’ fundraising strategy:

 

  • Wall Street Journal: Mitch McConnell Spares No Expense To Bolster The Candidacy Of Maine Sen. Susan Collins. “Two of his former aides who are now lobbyists at the white-shoe Akin Gump firm hosted a breakfast fundraiser for her on Wednesday in Washington, according to an invitation seen by The Wall Street Journal. One of the lobbyists, Brendan Dunn, was a top McConnell tax adviser and, like Collins, was crucial to the Republican tax law passing the Senate in 2017.”

 

  • HuffPost: Susan Collins Is Fundraising Off Her Brett Kavanaugh Vote: ‘Far Left’ Are Coming After Me. “A year later, the Maine Republican is boasting about her key role in securing his spot on the bench to raise money for her 2020 reelection campaign. ‘Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh is yet again under attack by the Far Left,’ stated a Collins fundraising email sent Sept. 19. ‘The Far Left is so determined to further their political agenda, they won’t hesitate to ruin someone’s life in the process.’ ‘While Justice Kavanaugh is in their crosshairs, they are also targeting me.’”

 

  • Bangor Daily News: Protesters Met Susan Collins Outside A Fundraiser Hosted By Trump’s Judge Whisperer. “Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins was greeted by protesters Thursday when she arrived for a campaign fundraiser in Northeast Harbor hosted by the man often described as President Donald Trump’s ‘judge whisperer.’ Leonard Leo is the executive vice president of the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group credited with the right’s reshaping of the federal judiciary that has accelerated under President Trump.”

 

  • Maine Public: Collins Greeted By Protesters Outside Fundraiser Hosted By Trump's “Judge Whisperer.” “Leonard Leo is the executive vice president of the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group credited with the right's reshaping of the federal judiciary that has accelerated under President Trump.”

 

  • Maine Beacon: Collins Attends Fundraiser At $4M Mansion Of Nation’s Top Anti-Choice Judicial Activist. “The Federalist Society is the leading force in placing judges who oppose abortion rights on the federal bench. Leo, who has been called ‘Trump’s judge whisperer,’ is one of several high-profile conservative judicial activists who have given large contributions to Collins following her pivotal vote to confirm Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.”

 

  • Daily Kos: Collins feted in big-dollar California fundraiser as ‘hero of the Kavanaugh confirmation.’ “Sen. Susan Collins is still trying to sell Mainers on her old, musty ‘moderate’ cloak… The mantle is going to get even harder for her to claim when the people raising boatloads of money for her keep calling her the "hero of the Kavanaugh confirmation."

 

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