Susan Collins should never be underestimated. She won her first Senate election 30 years ago, and her sheer tenacity in staying in power is formidable, especially since, over the course of her political career, Maine hasn’t been hospitable ground for Republicans (the state last gave the popular vote to a GOP president in 1988).
But Collins’s undeniable gift for pork-barrel spending could now come back to haunt her, thanks to a new pay-for-play scandal broken on Tuesday by ProPublica. The ProPublica story focuses on Collins’s links to Martin Kao, the former CEO of a defense contractor called Navatek. Last year, Kao was sentenced to 87 months in prison for bank fraud and Covid relief fraud.
ProPublica’s reporting shows that Kao’s operation was almost comically corrupt. Despite the denials of Collins’s office, the ProPublica report is damning. It’s also being picked up by local media in Maine. Troy Jackson, the Democratic candidate in the Senate race, put out a punchy ad quoting the reporting and labelling his rival “Corrupt Collins.”
…but don’t ever blame the voters! Oh no, this must be the fault of the DNC, or “shitlibs”, or…
Yea its not like the Dems went out of their way to shit all over the progressive candidate in the primary and spread rumors and mudsling. Its not like they wasted all their money trying to get Janet Mills through the primary. And its certainly not due to the fact they can’t get independent voters to vote for them! Stupid voters how dare they not have the time, education or resources to make good political decisions. Anywhoo lets spend $100 million dollars on campaigning and shut down a couple hospitals.