This Is What We're Doing For Shenna Bellows' Race In Maine

Election day is two weeks from next Tuesday. I’m sure you either know there’s a lot at stake or just don’t care. Blue America isn’t trying to save the Democratic Party. That isn’t our job and it isn’t possible anyway— not with them working against themselves the way they have this cycle. Instead we have focused on a small handful of races where we feel there’s a legitimate shot to replace a conservative with a progressive. One of those races is for the Maine senate seat that Susan Collins has occupied for 18 years. When Olympia Snowe was the senior senator in Maine she was mostly successful in guiding Collins and keeping her away from Republican ideological extremism. Ever since Snowe retired, though, Collins has been off the reservation, voting far more frequently with her increasingly right-wing, anti-family party.

The alternative to 6 more wasted, obstructionist years of Susan Collins is a fresh face and vigorous advocate for Maine’s working families, Shenna Bellows. Blue America has been enthusiastic about her for the entire cycle and, as you can see at this link, our contributors have given her more this cycle than any other candidate. We respect that and we honor that and Digby, John, Jacquie and I decided to take the money our donors have given directly to our PAC and put about a third of it into a Google campaign for Shenna.

The video above and this post by Digby is another way to try to engage voters to think about what Shenna has to offer. I hope lots of Mainers appreciate The Beatles. If you want to help us keep this ad running, you can contribute to our I.E. committee. If you want to contribute to Shenna’s Get Out The Vote operation directly, you can contribute here. Either way, you’ll be helping replace someone Rick Santorum calls a “team player” with someone who plays for an entirely different team— working families struggling for an even break in a society more and more dominated by selfish corporate interests. Digby:

The death of the "Republican moderate" has been a topic of political conversation for some years now. The rise of the Tea Party and the ongoing rightward turn of the GOP leaves little room for moderation. However, there is at least one so-called moderate to whom the political press always fondly point when they wax nostalgic for the good old days when Tip O'Neil and Ronald Reagan allegedly knocked back scotch and sodas at the end of the day together. That lone "moderate" is Susan Collins of Maine. And unfortunately, her reputation for "moderation" is as mythic as those cocktail parties on the Truman Balcony.

Susan Collins may play Hamlet from time to time, wringing her hands in public about the crazies "on both sides" and Democrats inevitably throw in some more goodies to make her happy, watering down what is always already a compromise, and then ... she votes with the Republicans anyway. It's a con game she's run over and over again. Here are just a few examples:

Paycheck Fairness Act

Collins voted in April and again in September against the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would shield employees who raise legitimate questions about workplace pay equity, among other features. Bellows has consistently called on Collins to support the bill-- which Collins also voted to filibuster in 2010, 2012 and earlier this year-- and has made support for the measure one of the centerpieces of her campaign.

A February national survey found 60 percent of voters are more likely to support a candidate who supports fair pay for women, a higher minimum wage, paid family and medical leave and paid sick days. The survey also found that women are less likely to receive paid extended leave than men.

Republicans have been uncomfortable discussing the issue all year, leading to an MSNBC story on the GOP's shifting explanation for why the bill keeps getting filibustered. Collins said in 2012 without citing evidence that it would lead to "excessive litigation."

Minimum Wage

Collins stood with Washington Republicans in April against increasing the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, which translates to $21,008 per year for someone working 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year. Afterward, Collins put out a statement bemoaning the fact that the proposal "does not have the votes it would need to pass the Senate."

Maine voters support "raising the minimum wage to at least $10 an hour and indexing future increases to inflation" by a 63-36 spread, according to a July poll by the Maine People's Resource Center.

In 2007 the Senate voted 94-3 to increase the federal minimum wage in stages to its current level of $7.25 an hour, a far cry from today's partisanship.

Campaign Finance Reform

Collins is also out of step with public opinion on campaign finance reform. A CBS poll in May found voters support "limiting the amount of money individuals can contribute to political campaigns" over "allowing individuals to contribute as much money to political campaigns as they'd like" by 71-25. Collins has voted in lockstep with Washington Republicans against both the DISCLOSE Act, which would publicize the sources of large political contributions in a timely way, and the Udall Amendment, which would give Congress and state legislatures the power to regulate campaign spending.

That's just for starters. Her contention that she voted against the most outrageous Republican act of sabotage in the last congress (and that's saying something)-- the government shutdown-- is at the very least misleading. (In fact, she voted three times for bills requiring the president to defund or delay Obamacare in order to keep the government open.)

A whole lot of Mainers are on to Collins' phony posturing. They know that Collins is a phony and being independent Yankee types they don't take kindly to being conned. Instead, they are supporting Democrat Shenna Bellows for Senate.