The long-serving senator has delivered millions of dollars to every corner of her state. But in Maine, people say, it’s best to avoid getting on her bad side.
Page A226From§Eachthe evening edition — 31 October 2026
THE SCORECARD
Super PAC for the senator who delivers to every corner of Maine buys attack ads in Oregon
Every corner of Maine, the profile says. Every corner — mind the word, because a corner is a thing a state has and a constituency is a thing a senator keeps. The millions are real. They are congressionally directed spending, the Senate's own phrase for money a member names, delivers, and is thanked for by name, which is rather the point of naming it. Nothing was broken here. You are thinking of the super PAC. On the twelfth of October, Defending Main Street, long associated with Collins, spent thousands attacking Troy Jackson in Portland ... Oregon. Wrong Portland. Not wrong rules — wrong Portland. The money went out, the invoice cleared, and the committee that spent it owes nothing to any voter in Maine. And what does Maine get for the arrangement? On the seventh of October Jackson called her "an arsonist who helped set the fire, and then she wants credit for bringing a cup of water to put it out." She had touted her role in securing fifty billion dollars. Jackson priced the delivery at a cup.
Under the road the fox dens now. A man counts eggs, not hens.
“They tell you there's no money for your kid's clinic, and then a committee with her name all over it torches thousands on ads in the wrong Portland — that's how closely anybody's watching Maine. She helps light the fire in committee, shows up with a cup of water, and the paper calls it keeping score. The seat is what's on the ballot, and a cup is what's on offer.”
“Look, a buy is a buy, a vendor made a geographic error, it happens, and anyway it's an independent group, which I have always said. Did I say independent? "Long associated" is a phrase reporters use, that doesn't sound like me. The point is she secured fifty billion dollars, and I notice nobody in Maine is mailing the check back.”
The receipts
· Susan Collins-Aligned Super PAC Buys Attack Ads in Portland... Oregon from the morgue, 12 Oct 2026
· In Senate Debate, Troy Jackson Calls Susan Collins an 'Arsonist' Who Brings a 'Cup of Water' to the Fire from the morgue, 7 Oct 2026
· 'Corruption of the Highest Order,' Says Troy Jackson After Explosive Susan Collins Report from the morgue, 22 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.