Susan Collins made a career-killing vote after holding Americans in suspense for days. She proclaimed that she is a moderate Republican giving hope that she would vote against a man who had credibly been accused of sexually abusing a woman in high school. Across the country, women held their collective breaths until the last moment.
Then, she voted for Donald Trump’s guy Brett Kavanaugh for a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court. That was the last time that many Republicans gave her their confidence according to a new Bangor Daily News (BDN) poll. She betrayed them one time too many. The Republican party is not the Trump party..
The new poll found only 37 percent of likely Maine voters approved of how Collins was doing her job. This percentage plummeted since the last poll where 42 percent had approved of her. She is set up for the toughest fight in her career this November.
The number of Maine voters who disapproved of her job performance was 52 percent. Did the change come from Republicans? No. Instead, Democrats and Independents gave her the most unpopular senator in the country award symbolically earlier in the year.
In another important vote, the vote to impeach Donald Trump or not, she voted in his favor saying Trump had learned a “big lesson.” No. He did not.
The issue that the people of Maine were most concerned about was not the coronavirus pandemic. Fifty-three percent of voters said that it was third in their list of issues, following health care then the economy. At this point, the majority of voters like how their state, led by Democratic Governor Janet Mills, has been operating. When Collins moved into her previous run for senator, her approval rating ranked 69 percent at one point, and she won by 35 percentage points.
After Collins voted with Trump for Kavanaugh, a crowdfunding campaign raised four million dollars for anyone who ended up being the top candidate to run against the sitting senator. Collins has had to go outside of Maine to raise her campaign donors.
The leading Democratic candidate Sara Gideon is currently the speaker in Maine’s House of Representatives. Her lead is slender, though.
In an attempt to suck up to voters, Collins said she did not get why her constituents see her differently from before:
‘I am doing exactly the same thing I’ve always done. I’ve always cast votes with an eye to how they affect the state of Maine and our country. I think Mainers will look at my record, remember who I am and where I’m from.’
Maybe, that was the real problem.
The Mueller Report Adventures: In Bite-Sizes on this Facebook page. These quick, two-minute reads interpret the report in normal English for busy people. Mueller Bite-Sizes uncovers what is essentially a compelling spy mystery. Interestingly enough, Mueller Bite-Sizes can be read in any order.
