Out-of-state funding boosts Collins’ coffers

AUGUSTA — Republican Sen. Susan Collins has out-raised a liberal crowdfunding effort to unseat her, thanks to out-of-state donors, according to campaign finance reports recently filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Collins’ federal campaign finance reports filed Friday show she’s raised $4 million for her 2020 re-election campaign. She’s raised more than her three last re-election races combined and reports a $3.8 million war chest through March.

Collins has raised less than 1% of her funds this year from donors who say they’re from Maine.

Much of her donors are based in New York, Virginia, Florida, Texas, Washington, D.C. and California, according to her reports.

Collins’ biggest reported donors include political action committees tied to congressional Republicans, insurance company UNUM and consulting firm Deloitte. Her biggest individual donors include conservative billionaires Robert and Diana Mercer, who are also among President Trump’s biggest backers.

The AP analysis of her campaign finance report shows about a third of Collins’ donors gave $250 or less this year.

Such donors gave about 6% of Collins’ $1.5 million haul from January through March.

No Democrats have formally announced they’re running against Collins, who typically wins re-election by wide margins.

Progressives have raised over $3.5 million for a candidate to unseat Collins after she cast a key vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Kavanaugh was confirmed following contentious Senate Judiciary Committee hearings over claims from Christine Blasey Ford that he had sexually assaulted her while they were teenagers. Kavanaugh denied the allegations.

In the wake of the vote, a Burlington, Maine woman is facing federal charges of mailing a threatening letter to Collins’ home in October. It was unsigned and accused Collins of having “betrayed the people of Maine.”

Suzanne Muscara mailed starch to the Republican senator’s husband, Thomas Daffron, with a letter that claimed to have been coated with “ricin residue,” according to the affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Bangor.

Muscara, who was arrested Friday, faces up to 10 years in prison. It’s unclear whether she has an attorney to comment on her behalf.

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