By October Maine’s U.S. senatorial race had attracted thirteen million dollars to support Senator Susan Collins, the Republican, and the Democratic Speaker of the Maine House, Sarah Gideon. That total will grow and grow until October 2020. Most of this money will come “from away.” Mainers have contributed seven percent ($118,000) of the $1.6 million received by Collins from people who donated at least $200. Californians, with seventeen percent, exceeded Mainers by a wide margin. This “intrusion” in our state’s elections is certain to annoy some among us. Voters generally expect “their” senators to concentrate on serving their state.
This overlooks institutionalized log-rolling in Washington. Legislators, you see, sometimes find it advantageous to trade a vote favoring New Mexico’s mohair goat industry in return for votes beneficial to Pennsylvania’s mushroom caucus or Maine’s paper makers. Putting it in more statesmanlike terms, a competent and influential senator can do more for her state than one who concentrates on issues that matter only to her constituents.
“All politics is local” may be true for most Maine voters but the people in California, Florida, New York, Virginia, Texas, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Maryland who are spending money on Maine candidates have grander concerns. They either want to protect the GOP senate majority or help switch control over to the Democratic party. If they succeed then they can expect to see Trump convicted on impeachment charges along with a return to liberal control over the federal courts.
Republican held senatorial seats in Arizona, Colorado, and Iowa and Maine have drawn torrents of money from sources in other states. It’s early to say for sure but Maine may turn out to be the top cash-flow recipient. A million dollars will go further in a state with 1,300 thousand people than one with 7,200 thousand (Arizona). 5,700 thousand (Colorado) and 3,100 thousand. More, Collins ranks as the least vulnerable of the four targets. It may cost more to get rid of her.
A November 8 politico.com article, “GOP Senators Hit by Early Wave of Outside Money Ahead of 2020,” describes four “dark money” organizations which have been pouring millions into the four races. They were all formed just this year, all can raise unlimited amounts of money, and all are incorporated in the state which has been targeted. They don’t have disclose their ties to any national organization until after the election.
Each of the new nonprofits is incorporated in the targeted states. They are run by local Democratic operatives. None have any clear ties to national Democratic groups. In 2017 and 2018, Senate Majority PAC funded pop-up super PACs in several states with critical Senate elections, and the groups’ ties to national Democrats and donors weren’t revealed until after the elections. Maine Momentum, staffed with veteran Democratic operatives, including a former Gideon staffer, has spent nearly $1 million.
The executive director for Maine Momentum, Willy Ritch, explains: “As long as she [Collins] is paying more attention to those special interests than us, we are going to keep working to raise up the voices of average people here in Maine.” If I were an ‘average people’ and still in the fourth grade I’d be touched by Willy’s resolve to raise up my voice. But I began to grow increasingly cynical.
When Willy went on to swear that his organization is completely independent of the national Democratic Party organization I doubted him.
Betsy Sweet’s fight against Gideon for the Democratic nomination has drawn $183,000 in donations, 55% from small donations. Some of this comes from Democracy for America (DFA), an organization which recently sent me an e-mail inviting me to join their effort to transform American society. Yvette Simpson, its CEO explains the DFA endorsement: “Betsy Sweet is the kind of bold leader who can harness the grassroots energy that’s been growing in Maine for years, and finally replace one of Donald Trump’s key enablers in the U.S. Senate, Susan Collins.”
Apparently some people are inspired by such familiar drivel. The DFA claims 11,047 members in Maine and more than one million members nationwide. If they were truly inspired, they will have an impact.
They weren’t and they won’t.

John Frary of Farmington is a former candidate for U.S. Congress, a retired history professor, an emeritus Board Member of Maine Taxpayers United, a Maine Citizen’s Coalition Board member, and publisher of FraryHomeCompanion.com. He can be reached at jfrary8070@aol.com