Embattled Maine Sen. Susan Collins has been accused of disrespecting voters ahead of the midterms.
In a scathing editorial, the Portland Press Herald called out Collins, 73, over her handling of revelations that a probe into possible corrupt actions by the senator was killed by the Trump administration.
“The senator’s complacent response to open allegations of bribery sends voters a very clear and disrespectful message,” the editorial declared.
Collins was the subject of a Pro Publica investigation released last week that claims the Trump administration had gutted the FBI division that was investigating claims of possible bribery against Collins, along with cleaning out the lawyers in charge at the Department of Justice.
Collins dismissed the allegations, saying the claims are seven years old, and ridiculed them as the ranting of a convicted felon.
That response drew the editorial board’s ire.
The paper said it had hoped the “allegations of bribery by Sen. Susan Collins and staff would be met with a degree of solemnity, if not humility. Think again.”
Collins looks to be in trouble in her seat, which she has held since 1997. Almost every poll since the end of July has had her Democratic opponent Troy Jackson ahead by between one and four points.
Collins’ seat is a must-win for Republicans trying to hold onto their House and Senate majorities against what looks to be a surging blue wave.
She swiftly condemned the Pro Publica investigation, dismissing it as a “partisan hit job.”
“It is extremely disappointing to watch Collins and members of her staff move to immediately discredit a thorough and fair piece of investigative journalism on political and personal grounds,” the Press Herald wrote in response.
“It’s audacious to insist on innocence and stoke conspiratorial lines of thinking by reaching for terms like ‘partisan hit job,’” the editorial cautioned Collins.
It said that “the Trump administration has wailed about fraud while studiously dismantling the apparatus that’s in place to catch it.”
The board writes that “voters are bothered by this appearance of wrongdoing — it would be hard not to be.”
They conclude by saying Collins and her team should have at the very least “acknowledged that widespread disquiet. That hasn’t happened. We’re not at all hopeful that it will.”
The investigation alleges that in the lead-up to the 2020 election, Collins was running out of cash on hand and behind in the polls.
A representative for the senator is said to have met with a contact who promised a campaign donation in exchange for business contracts in Maine.
The donation was made through a shell company, the senator re-elected, and the contracts were awarded, allegedly.
Collins has vigorously denied the allegations against her. She did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The revelations are the latest roadblock to re-election in a rocky campaign.
In July ICE agents shot and killed a man just minutes from Collins’ office, after the senator had been a deciding vote in the passage of legislation to fund ICE through the rest of Trump’s presidency.
Abortion rights campaigners are also out in force against Collins, as her vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court is seen as one of the defining reasons that the court was then in a position to overturn Roe v Wade.
Collins looked to be in luck after the Democrats’ initial candidate Graham Platner was forced to drop out of the race after allegations of sexual misconduct and assault by more than one woman.
But his replacement, Troy Jackson, is keeping the seat competitive.
