The bad news for Sen. Susan Collins, Republican from Maine, just doesn't stop. First she learns that she's the second least popular senator, after Mitch McConnell, and now she's getting a glimpse into how unpopular she is in Maine.
The Democratic primary to determine her challenger is months away, but the fundraising for the establishment-backed candidate is very strong, particularly at home in Maine. In just the first two weeks of her campaign, Sara Gideon out-raised Collins' total for the whole of the year from in-state donors, HuffPost reports.
Gideon, the state House speaker, formally announced on June 24, and raised almost $1.1 million in the final ten days of the quarter, the end of June. About $453,000 of that—43% of it—was in $200 or less donations. The FEC doesn't require that donors at that level be identified, so it's not clear how many of those are Mainers. But 44% of the remaining $600,500 came from in-state. Collins, on the other hand, raised $2 million in the last quarter, but just 1.3% of it, about $26,000, was from small-dollar donors. That's bad. This is worse: 95% of her total haul came from out-of-state. Less than $100,000 was given from people in Maine.
So in a week and a half, Gideon received more than double the amount of in-state donations than Collins was able to raise in-state in six months. Ouch. Oh, and this: "Roughly $490,000 of Collins' second-quarter contributions came from political action committees, compared to the $5,000 reported by Gideon's campaign."
Of course Collins is taking PAC and out-of-state big money and of course she's going to get it. Republicans are going to protect one of their own, and she's definitely that. But there's also all those millions in funds being held for the eventual Democratic nominee that Collins is having to worry about. Just as she should.
Let's keep her worried by building that fund. Please give $1 to help Democrats in each of these crucial Senate races, but especially the one in Maine!
