FIVE FACTS ABOUT SUSAN COLLINS’ CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTORS
Maine Senator Susan Collins raised $3.6 million in the second quarter of 2020 with a staggering 91% coming from outside the state of Maine. Dependence on out-of-state donors has emerged as a pattern for Collins, often raising close to 95% of contributions from out of state. The filing also showed that Collins continues to depend on corporate PAC contributions, private equity, and corporate special interests to fund her campaign.
1. The airline industry continued to support Collins after the CARES Act bailed out the industry and many airlines announced coming layoffs.
2. Chairpersons and CEOs of companies that received Paycheck Protection Program loans made max-out contributions to Collins in the last quarter.
3. Collins raised 91% of her contributions from outside the State of Maine. According to OpenSecrets, Collins has collected 93% of all her contributions from out of state. This totals over $9.2 million. Collins’ top metro areas are the DMV, NYC, and Boston. As a result, Collins has raised more from both DC and NYC than the entire state combined. Fun fact: The $200 contribution Collins received from Lubec in June is the only contribution a resident of that city has ever given her.
4. Senator Collins is now ranked second by OpenSecrets in the Senate for most funds raised from private equity having raised $446,184. Since her vote on the 2017 Republican tax bill, Collins has seen millions pour into her campaign from private equity firms and their CEOs, in both direct contributions and soft money donations to a super PAC supporting her reelection. In a report drafted after the passage of the tax law, a private equity advisory firm found that the value of private equity firms could increase by as much as 17 percent due to the new regulations. Private equity titans like Stephen Schwarzman of Blackstone Group and Ken Griffin of Citadel have personally contributed millions of dollars. Before Collins cast her key vote on the Republican tax giveaways, Blackstone employees could hardly be found in her FEC reports, now they make up one of the largest single sources of campaign funds contributing over $60,000 since the tax bill passed.
5. 1820 PAC, the newly formed super PAC supporting Senator Collins in her reelection campaign has accepted two $12,500 donations from private-prison giant GEO Acquisition II, which has active government contracts through the Bureau of Prisons. Government contractors are limited in their ability to contribute to political campaigns making this contribution a likely violation of campaign finance law. Because the FEC does not hold a quorum, the agency cannot investigate claims of campaign finance violation.
