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TexasTowelie

(111,287 posts)
Sat Jun 22, 2019, 02:42 AM Jun 2019

A strong opponent is needed to unseat Collins

Political activist and lobbyist Betsy Sweet has become the first mainstream Democrat with at least a modicum of political experience and name recognition willing to take on Susan Collins in 2020 for a crucial seat in the United State Senate. Sweet became known to voters across the state through her unsuccessful bid for the governor’s office in 2018. Hopefully, other strong candidates will surface in the weeks ahead to provide a vigorous and necessary public debate about why it’s time for Collins to go. At this writing, the only other Democratic candidate in the offing appears to be Saco attorney Bre Kidman, a name likely unfamiliar to most Mainers. Kidman describes themselves on Facebook as a “criminal defense attorney by day and radical fat queer/performance artist/model/musician/activist most other times.” That’s a colorful resume, but those aren’t likely the credentials of an electable candidate.

If ever there has been a time when Maine needs a political leader who can appeal to a broad spectrum of the voters, that time is now. Maine Democrats will miss a golden opportunity to capture one of the state’s two U.S. Senate seats if they fail to put forward and support a strong and viable standard-bearer for the upcoming statewide election. Never has Collins been as vulnerable as she is now. Thanks to a vigorous fundraising effort following Collins’ now infamous vote to seat Brett Kavanaugh on the U.S. Supreme Court, the eventual Democratic candidate will start their campaign with substantial financial backing. A Crowdpac fund raised nearly $3.8 million from nearly 125,000 donors to back Collins’ future opponent.

Meanwhile, the evidence continues to mount that Collins is not the forthright and independent voice for Maine that she has represented herself to be. As has previously been pointed out, Maine’s senior senator rightly observed back in 2016 that Donald Trump was unfit to occupy the nation’s highest office. As president, he has demonstrated that unfitness for the world to see. But for more than two years now, Collins has shown almost no willingness to call out Trump for his constant lying and his disgraceful behavior. At the same time, she has joined with other Republican senators to provide critical backing for Trump initiatives.

A recent Beacon article discusses a new nonpartisan report by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) showing that claims made by Republican lawmakers, including Collins, justifying their votes for Trump’s 2017 GOP federal tax cuts have not been borne out. The CRS researchers found that, contrary to Collins’ assertion that the tax cuts would spur growth and raise wages for American workers, “the growth effects tend to show a relatively small (if any) first-year effect on the economy.”

Read more: https://mainebeacon.com/a-strong-opponent-is-needed-to-unseat-collins/

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A strong opponent is needed to unseat Collins (Original Post) TexasTowelie Jun 2019 OP
Sounds like a job for Beto. We in NY have a history of willingly accepting winning... TreasonousBastard Jun 2019 #1
Nope. Very low tolerance for folks from away around here. GreenPartyVoter Jun 2019 #2
Wasn't Susan Rice mentioned previously ? OnDoutside Jun 2019 #3
Yes, and she would probably still face the From Away issue. GreenPartyVoter Jun 2019 #4
One more candidate sandyd921 Jun 2019 #5
I like Sara, Soxfan58 Jun 2019 #6

TreasonousBastard

(43,049 posts)
1. Sounds like a job for Beto. We in NY have a history of willingly accepting winning...
Sat Jun 22, 2019, 03:16 AM
Jun 2019

carpetbaggers who moved here to run.

Why not Maine?

GreenPartyVoter

(72,377 posts)
2. Nope. Very low tolerance for folks from away around here.
Sat Jun 22, 2019, 04:18 AM
Jun 2019

At least among some folks, and particularly for someone who has never lived here but then swoops in at the last minute to tell us what to do and how to do it.

GreenPartyVoter

(72,377 posts)
4. Yes, and she would probably still face the From Away issue.
Sat Jun 22, 2019, 07:30 AM
Jun 2019

It means something around here. And it's even worse on the islands. My family was a founding family who periodically moved away and became summer folk until a younger generation took it into their heads to move back to the homestead. Even though I was born in Maine, my neighbor insisted that I was a transplant because I wasn't born in my own house on the island. And because the Navy relocated my Dad to Maryland when I was a toddler.

sandyd921

(1,547 posts)
5. One more candidate
Sat Jun 22, 2019, 11:50 AM
Jun 2019

My understanding is that Sara Gideon, Speaker of the ME House of Representatives, will be announcing shortly (possibly, next week). Although neither Sweet nor Gideon may be considered "strong opponents" at present, with sufficient funding from national Dems bent on taking the seat back from the repubs, one or the other could establish herself in the public's minds. There is definitely fertile ground to work from this time around. The interest in voting against Collins is the strongest I've seen it in the time I've lived in ME (moved here in '98).

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