Collins is being propped up by the system she helped create when she voted against efforts to limit dark money in politics
Senator Susan Collins and the NRSC just launched desperate new ads decrying the influence of outside money in Maine politics and misleading Mainers about Sara Gideon’s record. But like always, she neglected to mention the millions in dark money being spent on her behalf and her history of voting to block efforts to get dark money out of politics.
Senator Collins has benefited from more than $4 million in dark money spending in the last year alone. And she’s received millions of dollars in air cover from Super PACs including 1820 PAC, which is backed by Wall Street billionaires and has been implicated in a likely straw donor scheme. At the same time, Collins has accepted more than $5.9 million from corporate PACs -- the most corporate PAC money accepted by any candidate in Maine’s history.
Collins has had the opportunity to reform our broken campaign finance system, but instead, she voted four times against legislation aimed at increasing transparency and limiting dark money spending in federal elections, including casting a deciding vote to kill the DISCLOSE Act in 2010. Then in 2014, she voted to keep the floodgates of corporate money open when she opposed a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United.
“It’s rich for Susan Collins of all people to run misleading attack ads about dark money in politics when she’s been key to allowing dark money to run amok in our elections,” said Maine Democratic Party Chair Kathleen Marra. “While Mitch McConnell and his Washington Republican allies flood Maine’s airways with ads to prop up her flailing campaign, it is the height of hypocrisy for Senator Collins to pretend that she didn’t create the system that she continues to benefit from.”
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