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Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, is going on the air with her first ad of what’s looking like a very long reelection race against presumptive Democratic nominee Graham Platner.
The ad nods to her seniority as Senate Appropriations chair and her sway in Washington, highlighting her advocacy for securing $6 million to help replace the collapsed Eastport Breakwater, according to details first shared with Semafor.
The $600,000 ad buy will run for two weeks as Collins prepares for a general-election battle with Platner, who nudged Gov. Janet Mills out of the primary in a stunning victory for progressives. There’s plenty more cash where that came from: Collins had $10 million in the bank as of this spring.
Outside groups are planning to pound Platner with negative ads, but Collins’ first spot is positive, narrated by the executive director of the Eastport Port Authority, who recalls Collins calling him before sunrise back in 2014 to assure him she’d advocate for the breakwater.
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Maine’s Senate race is going to be a very long one. Platner’s been on the air for a while because of his primary against Mills, but now it’s Collins’ turn.
There are other signs that the race is evolving quickly into a general-election marathon. Among them: The Maine press is scrutinizing the health of both candidates.
On Wednesday, WCSH interviewed Collins about her lifelong tremor; she released a statement saying she’s had it her entire career as a senator and that it “does not interfere at all with my ability to do my job.”
“The tremor is occasionally inconvenient, and sometimes the subject of cruel comments online, but it does not hinder my ability to work and, as I said, is something that I have lived with for decades,” she said.
Platner has a 100% Veterans Administration disability rating from his service overseas, but said it won’t affect his ability to function in Congress, either. He said last year that he’s “lucky enough that in my four combat tours, I was blown up enough times that the VA thinks I deserve healthcare.”