Maine Democrats criticize Susan Collins over reported allegations of pay-to-play scheme

By Michael Williams, Katherine Koretski, Arlette Saenz, CNN

(CNN) — With less than six weeks until Election Day, the Maine Senate race has been roiled by a report of a pay-to-play scheme allegation against Republican Sen. Susan Collins’ office as Democrats lean into corruption messaging and the senator herself forcefully pushing back on the reporting as a “smear job.”

Maine Democrats are demanding that Collins answer for a report that her office committed to steering millions of dollars in federal contracts to a Hawaii-based defense contractor in exchange for donations to her 2020 campaign.

“This is an incredibly serious allegation that we need Susan Collins to respond to and address immediately,” Devon Murphy-Anderson, the executive director of the Maine Democratic Party, said. “We’re not up here calling for Susan Collins to resign. We’re not up here putting blame on her. We are asking her for answers,” she added.

ProPublica reported on Tuesday that several executives of the contractor, Navatek, met with a top fundraiser for Collins in 2019 as she was facing a tough reelection contest in which she was behind in fundraising. The meeting took place about a year after Collins helped steer a multimillion-dollar naval research contract to the company, ProPublica reported.

ProPublica reported that the fundraiser asked the executives for a campaign donation, and the company’s CEO, Martin Kao, agreed to cut a check in exchange for tens of millions of additional dollars in government contracts, despite prohibitions on government contractors making political contributions.

The story could shake up a race that could help decide control of the Senate in November. Collins, a five-term incumbent, is seeking reelection in a state that President Donald Trump lost in 2024 by seven points.

In a podcast interview with the Wall Street Journal released Wednesday, Collins pushed back on the reporting, saying “it’s clearly a political hit job.”

“As someone who has always prided herself on serving with the integrity, it really offends me. And I’m offended for my staff too, both on the campaign and in the personal office,” she said on the “All Things with Kim Strassel” podcast. “So shame on ProPublica for taking the words of a twice-convicted felon over my office campaign staff and me. It’s disgraceful.”

Collins’ deputy chief of staff, Annie Clark, said in a statement that the allegations in ProPublica’s story were “categorically false.”

“The Collins campaign cooperated fully with the FBI throughout the investigation, producing all of the documents it requested and serving as fact witnesses in official settings,” Clark said in the statement.

She accused Kao of “making outlandish charges about the Collins office” while facing sentencing in his federal case.

The FBI issued a statement saying that “the allegations made in this article had already been investigated by the FBI years ago and ultimately found nothing implicating Senator Collins or Senator Collins’ campaign. Any suggestion otherwise is totally false.”

Collins’ campaign manager, Steve Abbott, held a press conference Wednesday in which he described ProPublica’s reporting as “outrageous.”

“We hear this every cycle that Susan Collins is corrupt and all,” Abbott said. “I mean, whatever … It’s the same thing over and over and over again.”

ProPublica reported that Kao, using a shell company, sent $150,000 to Collins’ campaign fundraising arm. Kao later told other executives that Collins had committed to giving Navatek $32 million in government contracts. The story included a picture of a check made out to the pro-Collins 1820 PAC from the purported shell company “Society of Young Women Scientist and Engineers, LLC.”

The outlet also reported those alleged actions prompted an FBI investigation that was shuttered shortly after Trump took office in 2021.

Kao and two other Navatek executives in 2022 were indicted on charges of making unlawful campaign contributions to a candidate for Congress. Kao, who was already serving a sentence stemming from a COVID-relief fraud case, pleaded guilty in the illegal campaign donations case last year and was sentenced to an additional 33 months in prison.

Collins ended up winning her 2020 contest against Democrat Sara Gideon by more than 8 points.

A competitive Senate race underway

This year, Collins is facing a competitive contest against Democrat Troy Jackson, who replaced the scandal-plagued Graham Platner as his party’s Senate nominee in July.

A recent CNN poll conducted by SSRS in the state showed no clear leader in the race with Jackson earning 48% support from likely voters and Collins at 45%, within the margin of error.

The same survey showed the contest hinged more on negative perceptions of Collins and Trump, who the Maine senator has tried to maintain distance from, than it did on perceptions of Jackson.

The ProPublica report emerged at a critical juncture in the midterm race as early voting in the state is set to begin on October 5. The allegations could also become a focal point of upcoming high-profile debates between Collins and Jackson, who are set to face-off four times over the span of ten days next month.

Democrats believe the allegations detailed by ProPublica amplify their messaging against Collins, including on corruption issues.

“Look, the jig is up. What Susan Collins just got caught doing is corruption of the highest order,” Jackson said in a new digital video Wednesday.

In addition to tying Collins to Trump, a Democratic strategist familiar with the race said those corruption arguments “play into the populist base” concerns and “this story took it to another level.”

Collins’ allies, however, acknowledge the timing and attention around the story is not ideal while pushing back on its premise.

“A story about corruption with five weeks left in a competitive race is not an optimal situation,” said Lance Dutson, a GOP strategist who previously worked for Collins.

“It’s basically the equivalent of another kind of DC, Democratic salacious attack on Collins’ character,” Dutson said of the story. “I think upon examination that the small group of independents and undecided voters out there is going to fall on the same decision as they have in the past. We know Susan Collins.”

Another Republican strategist involved in the Senate race said the story is “great fodder” for Democrats, but “in terms of it changing the trajectory of the race, I don’t think it will.”

“They whack at her every day,” the strategist said. “The campaign just needs to execute their plan of emphasizing Susan’s record of what she’s doing and keep introducing people to Troy Jackson who entered the race like six weeks ago.”

It’s unclear whether Jackson or Democratic groups will decide to churn out TV ads highlighting the allegation. Democratic-aligned groups previously have run negative ads accusing Collins of insider stock trading and others arguing Collins’ voting record aligns too closely to Trump.

Republican outside groups, however, have also featured corruption-themed messaging in their attack ads against Jackson, including spots from the Senate Leadership Fund and The Maine Standard, which is linked to a network of new GOP super PACs that have been stood up this year and begun booking ad time in key midterms race.

Democrats held a press conference in Maine Wednesday morning demanding more answers from Collins.

“We deserve to know exactly what happened,” Murphy-Anderson added. “We deserve to know whether taxpayer dollars were always being directed solely based on the interests of Maine people, or if there was something else at play, and we deserve representation in DC that understands the public office is public trust.”

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