Democrats launch $3.4M corruption-focused ad campaign against Susan Collins
Democratic PAC launches $3.4 million ad attack on Sen. Susan Collins over alleged pay‑to‑play scheme
A Democratic super‑PAC, WinSenate, spent a record $3.4 million on a 30‑second television spot that accuses Republican Senator Susan Collins of steering millions of dollars in defense contracts to a contractor in exchange for illegal campaign contributions. The ad, unveiled on Friday, was designed to hit the closing month of Maine’s tightly contested Senate race.
The campaign’s central claim comes from a ProPublica investigation that exposed illegal contributions made to a pro‑Collins super‑PAC during her 2020 campaign. In the spot, an older woman—a key swing demographic in the race—speaks directly to the camera, saying, “Susan Collins took illegal campaign money and steered millions in government contracts to the donor, but Donald Trump’s administration shut down the investigation. Maybe there’s a reason Susan Collins does whatever Donald Trump wants her to.”
The narrative ties into a larger push by Democratic‑aligned groups to frame Collins as a “pay‑to‑play” politician. On Sept. 29, the Senate Majority PAC, which works closely with WinSenate, issued a memo outlining a strategy that would make corruption a focal point of its messaging, noting that the term “corrupt” resonates strongly with swing voters who have repeatedly re‑elected Collins despite the state’s recent Democratic leanings.
Polls released after the ProPublica story showed Democrat Troy Jackson—former logger and former state Senate president—holding a narrow two‑point lead over Collins, according to averages from the election‑research site FiftyPlusOne. Jackson, who is also facing GOP attacks over his expense reimbursements and his son’s lobbying work, has been touted as a challenger who can unseat Collins in an election that could alter the Senate’s balance.
Collins’s spokesperson, Shawn Roderick, fired back at the Democratic messaging, claiming that the tactics used by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer were being imported into Maine. “His ads keep getting fact‑checked as false, and now he is asking Mainers to believe someone who is doing hard time in federal prison for fraud. Mainers have never fallen for his tactics and they aren’t going to now,” Roderick said.
Collins, for her part, has denied the allegations, calling the ProPublica report “outrageous” and a “political hit job” that relies on the testimony of a convicted felon. She has pointed to a 2022 guilty plea by defense contractor Martin Kao of Navatek, a Hawaii
