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Collins Watch @collinswatch.bsky.social · 4m

The New York Times reported in August that Susan Collins met with one of these dark money groups at a DC townhouse owned by Oracle. (Can't make this stuff up!) What was said at the meeting? Who are the people behind the dark money group? Only Susan Collins knows! tinyurl.com/ywn24d67 #MEpolitics

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Collins Watch @collinswatch.bsky.social · 45m

Can't understand this from @stevemistler.bsky.social -- usually a sharp reporter. @propublica.org didn't just ALLEGE Reed discussed concealing an illegal donation. It shared e-mails! And the FEC's lawyer wanted the PAC charged over this. (tinyurl.com/7mkr3r4r) Reed denied this where?!? #MEpolitics

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Collins Watch @collinswatch.bsky.social · 1h

Susan Collins down 3% in new AARP poll. Throw it into the average and go make some calls. #MEpolitics

Patrick Svitek tweet:

#MESEN
Troy Jackson (D) 50
Susan Collins (inc.) (R) 47
Other/undecided 3

#MEGOV: Pingree (D) +13

Trump net approval: -24

(Sept. 20-22; 982 LVs; +/-3.1%)

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Collins Watch @collinswatch.bsky.social · 2h

OK folks. Anyone know Brandon Goding in Fort Kent? Or know someone who probably knows him? Care to reach out? #MEpolitics

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Collins Watch @collinswatch.bsky.social · 3h

If Susan Collins didn't illegally coordinate with the super PAC run by her spouse's boss then the answer to the question is easy: 'There was no call. Period.' After all she had no way to know Kao gave the $$ unless the PAC told her! That they can't/won't say this gives the game away. #MEpolitics

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Collins Watch @collinswatch.bsky.social · 3h

PPH memoryholes Susan Collins camp's answer from the day before -- when her deputy chief of staff said Collins DID call Kao. (tinyurl.com/2pja4fhj) Beyond that, notice her team being careful not to outright *deny* a call. Trying to hedge in case evidence of a call surfaces. #MEpolitics

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Collins Watch @collinswatch.bsky.social · 3h

Lifelong Republican from a small town in deep red western Maine: It's time for Susan Collins to go. "I am no particular fan of Mr. Jackson, but I am sure he will stand in robust opposition to the menace in the White House. Country over party." #MEpolitics

Press Herald letter: This lifelong Republican says it’s time for Sen. Collins to go. The reason is simple: her support for Trump.
I have written the senator for more than eight years, always asking for a response. I’ve never gotten one. Odd, considering when I’ve written to Sen. King, I’ve gotten three pages of soggy prose that didn’t address the point.
But the issue is Collins’ support for Trump; her votes for his minions who are harming the American order and her limp opposition when it’s apparent her vote isn’t needed shows me she’s chosen party over country.
I am no particular fan of Mr. Jackson, but I am sure he will stand in robust opposition to the menace in the White House. Country over party.
Earle Wingate
Peru

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Collins Watch @collinswatch.bsky.social · 18h

Right-wing pollster with Susan Collins +2%. Put it in the blender and then forget about it. (And then open your contacts and text a bunch of folks to make sure they have a voting plan.) #MEpolitics

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Collins Watch @collinswatch.bsky.social · 21h

Front page one week ago. Susan Collins and her team haven't been able to get their story straight on some of the allegations (tinyurl.com/2pja4fhj). Meanwhile, they haven't even been questioned about other explosive, documented revelations (tinyurl.com/2as93ztk). #MEpolitics

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Collins Watch @collinswatch.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

@pressherald.com does the unthinkable: Talks to an expert to debunk Susan Collins's nonsense and provides the context needed to assess the credibility of her expressions of dismay. Should be the approach -- accurate info over spin and he said/she said -- in every single #MEpolitics article.

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Collins Watch @collinswatch.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Matt Dunlap's race is important because it's a potential flip. But it's also important because if Dunlap pulls it off it will be a repudiation of Jared Golden-ism and the DC establishment groupthink that assumes the way to win tough districts is to adopt GOP stances and badmouth Dems. #MEpolitics

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Collins Watch @collinswatch.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

@propublica.org provided receipts that Susan Collins campaign conspired with a felon/donor to commit campaign finance crimes; Collins maintains her team did nothing wrong but hasn't spoken to the specifics; and the staffer still works for Collins. How is this sustainable? #MEpolitics

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Collins Watch @collinswatch.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Thru line connecting this astroturf LTE -- by a former GOP candidate who doesn't identify themselves as such -- to the bombshell corruption report is that Susan Collins is a transactional politician. If helping you is part of a bargain that helps her, she might do it. Otherwise, nope. #MEpolitics

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Collins Watch @collinswatch.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

One week after this was published: Is Amy Abbott continuing to serve as the finance director on Susan Collins 2026 campaign? If so why hasn't she been dismissed? Has anyone asked? #MEpolitics

ProPublica article: The principals settled on hosting Collins for a publicity event at Navatek’s Maine headquarters in August 2019, where she posed for pictures with Kao and a model of the company’s experimental boat. Behind the scenes, the FBI saw in emails and company records, Kao orchestrated over $40,000 in donations from extended family in advance of the event. To avoid the legal cap on individual campaign contributions, the emails show, he told Collins’ team to reallocate his excess contributions to his father — which an agent highlighted and noted is against election law in a presentation to prosecutors — and sent them his father’s full name and address.

“This is perfect,” Amy Abbott, the reelection campaign finance director, emailed Kao after discussing his father’s contribution. “We are so grateful for ALL the Kao support!”

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Collins Watch @collinswatch.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Absolute madness that a week after @propublica.org story's we still have no clue why Susan Collins's husband Tom Daffron has been getting $$$ from the guy running the super PAC she's legally barred from coordinating with -- or how much he's received. We just know it's more than $1,000. #MEpolitics

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Collins Watch @collinswatch.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Seven minutes of Jon Stewart zeroing in on the giant gap btwn Susan Collins words and actions [15:52]: "No one plays the 'I'm actually quite concerned and upset about this thing I am actually going to vote for' better than the poster child for troubled acquiescence...Susan Collins." #MEpolitics

youtube.com

Will Republicans Divorce Trump Over Xi Embrace? Probably Not | The Daily Show

YouTube video by The Daily Show

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Collins Watch @collinswatch.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

"The community action program that serves Aroostook, Washington and Hancock Counties said it is getting up to 200 voicemails a day from residents who are anxious about how they will pay their fuel bills this winter...Heating oil prices in Maine have now topped six dollars a gallon." #MEpolitics

mainepublic.org

Northern Mainers fear they can't afford heating bills this winter

AVEC Community Action, which serves Aroostook, Washington and Hancock Counties, says residents are already calling for emergency fuel assistance.

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Collins Watch @collinswatch.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

"Objective" Maine "reporter" Phil Hirschkorn (actually an inveterate Susan Collins bootlicker and errand-runner) doing external PR for a senate candidate days before early voting starts. So often being "objective" really means reserving the right to put a thumb on the scale but quietly. #MEpolitics

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Collins Watch @collinswatch.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Calling Scott Reed and Susan Collins husband Tom Daffron 'former business partners' is highly misleading. As the next sentence makes clear, Reed paid Daffron (for what?!) quite recently. And last week Collins's campaign manager said "they're still working together"! tinyurl.com/2pja4fhj #MEpolitics

Press Herald article: The super PAC, called the 1820 PAC, was controlled by Scott Reed, a friend and former business partner of Collins’ husband, Tom Daffron. Financial disclosures from Collins show Daffron was paid at least $1,000 for consulting work last year at Chesapeake Enterprises.
This cycle, Reed is chairman of Pine Tree Results, a super PAC spending millions to reelect Collins.

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Collins Watch @collinswatch.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The thing about undecided voters is that their convictions aren't very deep. Otherwise they wouldn't be undecided in an environment where the choice couldn't be clearer. That means you've got to keep talking and talking to them. tinyurl.com/3rwde362 #MEpoltiics

Press Herald headline: Some Maine swing voters rethink support for Susan Collins after pay-to-play allegations
Swing voters were key to Collins winning a fifth term in 2020.
Posted 4:33 PM
Updated at 4:35 PM

Randy Billings
Staff Writer

Press Herald article: But Margaret Daigle, an East Millinocket Democrat, is rethinking her support of Collins. She said the ProPublica article reminded her of the last-minute attacks against Hillary Clinton over her handling of classified emails during the 2016 presidential race.
Daigle, 73, said “it’s annoying” that these allegations have come out so late in the cycle. She said she may not know who she’s voting for until she steps into the booth and closes the curtain.
“I’m still undecided — this is crazy,” Daigle said. “It’s gonna come right down to the wire.”

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Collins Watch @collinswatch.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

"Susan Collins has abandoned the mandate of the Catholic faith she professes to believe by funding the killing and inhumane incarceration of legal residents of this country." #MEpolitics

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Collins Watch @collinswatch.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Who knows where the race stands but it seems safe to say it hasn't been a great week for Susan Collins. #MEpolitics

Headline: Is this the end for Susan Collins?

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Collins Watch @collinswatch.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Susan Collins and her team can't get their story straight about the nexus among the felon/donor who spent big to boost her re-election chances; the super PAC run by her husband's boss; and her own campaign organization. And it's not hard to understand why! Our new piece at the link. #MEpolitics

susancollinswatch.substack.com

DID SUSAN COLLINS CALL KAO TO THANK HIM FOR HIS ILLEGAL CONTRIBUTION OR NOT?

Team Collins can’t get their story straight. And for good reason.

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Collins Watch @collinswatch.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

We added red lines into the below Susan Collins campaign image to show how her red-shirted minions have effectively cloistered Collins off from unscreened folks who might have the temerity to puncture her bubble of sycophancy and e.g. ask a pointed question about bribery. #MEpolitics

Susan Collins campaign image with red lines inserted to note the location of her red-shirted minions.

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Collins Watch @collinswatch.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Hey folks. We're not on Facebook. If anyone ever wants to take our Bluesky posts, copy/paste or screenshot them and post them there...have at it. You have our permission. #MEpolitics

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Collins Watch @collinswatch.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

A former Republican state senator, Harriman has been a Susan Collins-aligned GOP talking head for decades at this point. #MEpolitics

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Collins Watch @collinswatch.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

@apnews.com stacks the deck for Susan Collins in a piece on blowback for her role in Roe's demise, giving a 'woman on the street' quote to lobbyist Mary Ann Lynch, a Collins crony/campaign surrogate who's had TWO pieces flaking for Collins in @pressherald.com THIS MONTH ALONE! #bias #MEpolitics

AP: “I think I’ve tried to not have my allegiance to party make me blind to what may be a better path from time to time,” said Mary Ann Lynch, a Democrat supporting Collins. “Neither party, in my view, has a monopoly on the truth and how best to do things. So I think it’s really important to have people who will reach across the aisle.”

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Collins Watch @collinswatch.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Portland Press Herald editorial: "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." tinyurl.com/2s3k2wpv #MEpolitics

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Collins Watch @collinswatch.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

In its weekly news quiz, NY Times kinda-sorta tries to take credit for the bombshell @propublica.org report about Susan Collins corrupt pay-to-play relationship with a defense contractor...because they later wrote their own story confirming the original reporting. Nice try, guys! #MEpolitics

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Collins Watch @collinswatch.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Just made calls for a federal race. (Not Maine.) Was a good reminder that: --Super easy to sign up and anyone can do it --Can do it for candidates all over; doesn't have to be your state --Best/most fulfilling way to alleviate anxiety re: election outcomes is to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT #MEpolitics

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Collins Watch @collinswatch.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Republican pollster with a tie in ME-SEN. Throw it in the blender and go put up some signs. #MEpolitics

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Collins Watch @collinswatch.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Susan Collins acknowledged during the Vought confirmation battle that he'd claimed the authority to ignore the law. Her response was to support him anyway and express hope that the courts would sort it out afterward. #MEpolitics

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Collins Watch @collinswatch.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Just yesterday (tinyurl.com/2s3psr63) Susan Collins was talking up Kavanaugh and blithely dismissing the idea that confirming him was wrong. A giant middle finger to anyone who took her at her word -- or who cares about abortion rights (or about women not bleeding out in waiting rooms.) #MEpolitics

PPH headline: What Maine women who remember life before Roe are saying about Susan Collins
Many women in their 60s who backed the Republican incumbent for years now point to her role in confirming Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court as the moment when she lost their trust.

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Collins Watch @collinswatch.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Local Sinclair outlet WGME complains that Susan Collins won't answer their questions about her corrupt dealings with Martin Kao. (Since the corruption revelations surfaced, Collins has only had *one* national media interview -- with @wsj.com -- as far as we can tell.) #MEpolitics

WGME story: Collins has done several interviews with national media outlets since that time, but hasn't answered CBS 13's questions directly about Martin Kao, the former head of Navatek, who’s now serving time in federal prison.

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Collins Watch @collinswatch.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Washington Post confirms @propublica.org's reporting that the FBI shuttered a pay-to-play investigation into Susan Collins after Trump took over last year. #MEpolitics

WaPo: Three people familiar with the matter confirmed to The Washington Post that the FBI last year closed an early-stage inquiry into allegations that a defense contractor made concealed political contributions benefiting Collins in exchange for help securing federal contracts. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the previously undisclosed investigation.

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Collins Watch @collinswatch.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

"Susan Collins can do all the happy smiling bus tours she wants..." #MEpolitics

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Collins Watch @collinswatch.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

"Steve Abbott...claimed...Wednesday that Navatek’s research in 2019 benefited the University of Maine, who used it to launch a new boat last month....Unfortunately for him and Collins, the University of Maine debunked his claim." #MEpolitics

newrepublic.com

Susan Collins’s Flimsy Corruption Defense Collapses

The University of Maine is debunking a central lie in Collins’s story after the damning report on her pay-to-play scheme with a top donor.

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Collins Watch @collinswatch.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Worth watching the whole eight minutes but the spiciest bit starts at 5:22 culminating in the key question her camp can't get their story straight about: "How did Susan Collins know that this guy made this [super PAC] donation thru a shell company that was supposed to be anonymous?" #MEpolitics

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Collins Watch @collinswatch.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Stephen King, lifelong Mainer, puts up the bat signal. #MEpolitics

Stephen King tweet: It's time to put Susan Collins out to pasture.

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Collins Watch @collinswatch.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Worth noting Susan Collins keeps wading deeper and deeper into the pool. First when pressed she said she didn't regret the vote. Then she said she'd vote for Kav again. Now she's talking him up and volunteering that she has no regrets. All from a woman who pledged to protect Roe! #MEpolitics

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Collins Watch @collinswatch.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Susan Collins's bet, clearly, is that there are a non-trivial number of Dem/Indy voters who have been programmed for so long by the Maine press to believe she's pro-choice that it doesn't matter what she says or does. They simply won't believe otherwise. That can't be allowed to stand. #MEpolitics

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Collins Watch @collinswatch.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

6 years ago Susan Collins attacked another scathing @propublica.org investigative report (tinyurl.com/5n7awysw) by suggesting the nonprofit outlet must be biased since Soros and Sussman were both donors. At the time the two of them accounted for 0.13% of the news organization's revenue. #MEpolitics

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Collins Watch @collinswatch.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

If you were gonna script a corrupt nexus between a senator and billionaire-backed political operative whose sketchy org spoke on her behalf and conspired to obtain illegal donations to fuel her reelection...you wouldn't make her husband his employee! It'd be dismissed as too absurd! #MEpolitics

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