First ad targets Collins on impeachment, putting her in difficult political spot

A new television ad launched by a conservative group is urging Sen. Susan Collins to “stand up for the country and stand up for the rule of law” by speaking out against President Donald Trump’s “abuse of power” in withholding foreign aid from Ukraine in order to pressure the country’s government to take actions to benefit his re-election.

The ad, part of a reported $1 million television buy across several states by a group called Republicans for the Rule of Law is the first television commercial to target Collins on matters currently being investigated in a House impeachment inquiry. Republicans for the Rule of Law is a project of an organization called Defending Democracy Together, whose funding is opaque but whose leadership includes a group of neoconservative Republicans who have opposed some of the policies and many of the norm-obliterating behaviors of the Trump administration.

The advertisement is a reminder of the shaky political ground on which Maine’s senior senator may soon find herself as impeachment proceedings progress and new information continues to emerge about Trump’s apparent abuses of office for political gain.

If impeachment occurs and a trial is held in the Senate, Collins will be forced to cast a vote that could either shield the president from consequences or remove him from office. With support for impeachment increasing rapidly in public opinion polls and Trump lashing out at his investigators and radicalizing his base in an escalating series of tweets and public statements, either choice could harm her political prospects as she faces a difficult re-election.

To this point, Collins has avoided taking any real stand, claiming that she can’t discuss matters related to impeachment publicly because of the vote she might have to eventually take (although she has criticized the investigation to at least one reporter). Last week, Beacon D.C. correspondent Robin Bravender reported that Collins is alone among her senate colleagues with this self-imposed gag rule.

Breaking ranks with her fellow Republicans by criticizing the president, as the new ad urges her to do, could also shut off a spigot of campaign cash for Collins. Over the last few weeks The 1820 PAC, a conservative D.C.-based group funded by close Trump allies, has begun spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on advertising supporting her re-election.

Progressive groups running ads in Maine have so far focused mainly on health care and other pocketbook issues, rather than matters of presidential wrongdoing. A group called the 16 Counties Coalition, which seems to have more of an in-state footprint than the pro-Collins PAC has been running issue ads since August critical of her votes threatening health coverage and giving new tax breaks to the wealthy and large corporations.

Alicia from Augusta trusted @SenatorCollins and believed she had our backs. But Collins took $1 million from drug and insurance companies & voted for a bill that gave them over $6 billion in tax cuts. Tell Susan Collins to put Mainers before donors. #mepolitics pic.twitter.com/hK6vRoohDu

— 16 Counties Coalition (@16Coalition) September 19, 2019