Sen. Susan Collins is cleaning up in donations after her vote to put Brett Kavanaugh on the U.S. Supreme Court. Tellingly, that largesse is not coming from Mainers.
Huffington Post is reporting on an analysis from American Bridge 21st Century of Collins’ fundraising for the last quarter of 2018. She raised $1.8 million in those three months, but less than $20,000 of that came in contributions of $200 or less from residents of Maine. Instead, most of it came from public supporters of Kavanaugh, most of them giving on either Oct. 5 or the day after. That's when she announced she'd be voting for Kavanugh despite the very credible allegations of sexual assault against him from Christine Blasey Ford and other women.
The donations included $2,700 each from people who had worked or gone to school with Kavanaugh and signed onto letters supporting him, and $5,400 from one friend of Kavanaugh, Laura Cox Kaplan. She gave it in two chunks, both on Nov. 5. Cox Kaplan was center stage during the Kavanaugh hearings, sitting behind him in the hearings and speaking in a press conference supporting him. Collins got another $18,450 from 16 of the women who signed onto letters of support, with individual contributions ranging from $250 to $2,700.
"For all the talk about Collins’s record-setting quarter, the reality is that she raised more money from Kavanaugh sympathizers than she did from the people she's supposed to be representing," said Amelia Penniman with American Bridge. "That fact speaks volumes and underscores exactly why her days in the Senate are numbered."
The CrowdPac fundraiser set up by the Maine People's Alliance, Mainers for Accountable Leadership, and activist Ady Barkan's Be a Hero for the eventual Democratic challenger to Collins in next year's general election now sits at well over $3.7 million. The people of Maine are already voting, with their pocketbooks.
Donate $1 right now to each of the Democratic candidates and nominee funds targeting vulnerable Senate Republicans—including Susan Collins—running in 2020.