Maine Senate: Mod Fraud Declawed? Bellows Fire And Our Match

A generous Blue America supporter who matched contributions to Maine US Senate Democratic nominee Shenna Bellows in this year’s first quarter, is back again to match the first $1,000 contributed to Bellows through the our ActBlue page between now and Monday night at midnight.

This supporter says "with Bellows’ fire making Collins’ sweat, the least I can do is offer another match," and goes on to highlight the following evidence of Collins’ sweat and Bellows’ fire:

Mainstream media-labeled "moderate" Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine has "evolved" more in the last 12 weeks than in her prior 18 years in the Senate, on:

•        Marriage equality
•        CIA torture disclosures,


and faking compromises more energetically than usual on

•         Minimum wage

Collins repositioning on the above issues is too little and too late, and is so transparently linked to obtaining re-election endorsements that it goes beyond "transactional" into the realm of "mercenary."

That linkage clarifies that Collins is sweating under heat and light generated by the energetic Progressive and "Civil Libertarian" campaign of Democratic nominee Shenna Bellows. In Maine they are calling this the "Shenna Effect."

Collins says she is simply following the logic of her own "moderate" compass-- the same one that, for 18 years, caused her to evolve:

•         from “moderately” enabling Bob Dole to obstruct President Bill Clinton,
•         all the way to “moderately” enabling Mitch McConnell to obstruct President Barack Obama
-- both of whom won Maine’s Presidential votes.

Collins’ moderation (and Collins’ popularity) never matched that of now-retired Maine Senator Olympia Snowe. The last two Democratic challengers to Collins, the “Mod Fraud,” got clawed-- but Shenna Bellows has made a good start to de-clawing Collins, and exposing her as a "Paper Tiger."

It is no coincidence that Democrats who depended on Tea Partiers to push Snowe into retirement then lost Snowe’s seat to the Independent Angus King in a 3-way race. Moving a seat from the Republican to the Democratic column entails heavy lifting of the type that Shenna Bellows is doing now.

At this rate, before the November election, Collins may evolve on many more major issues, to preserve an appearance of moderation on:

•         Bellows’ signature civil-libertarianism, which is encouraging many Maine Libertarians to consider casting their first-ever votes for a Democrat, and
•         Healthcare, on which Collins has so far evolved even less that Mitch McConnell from the failed arguments in their joint lawsuit to invalidate the Affordable Care Act including its Medicaid expansion.

…but Collins has a history of swerving back into the Republican embrace after being re-elected.

For real progress, Maine and the nation both need to see Shenna Bellows keep shining light and heat on Collins’:

•         unprincipled positioning,
•         favors owed and repaid to big money contributors, and
•         enabling of Mitch McConnell, along with endangered Maine Republican Tea Party (39% 3-way election mandate) Governor Paul LePage, and other Republicans, such as Mitt Romney and John McCain, whom Maine voters have seen through and voted against.

Shenna Bellows is already having an "effect" on the US Senate by pressuring Collins. If we provide the financial resources to continue expanding her exceptionally principled, energetic and well-organized campaign, and to complement her retail campaigning with advertisements in Maine’s low cost television and radio market, then Shenna Bellows can:

•         bring us even closer to a solidly Blue (and regionally cooperating) New England,
•         send a message that voters will penalize “moderate” enabling of CIA and NSA abuses, and
•         shake up the Senate and the nation in the manner of Senator Elizabeth Warren.

Again, help activate the $1,000 match by contributing whatever you can right here on our ActBlue page. And, remember, there's no contribution that's too small. In grassroots campaigns like this, they all add up.