Longtime Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins Faces Campaign Finance Scandal Weeks Before Election Day As Senate Control Hangs In The Balance

Maine’s Susan Collins is known for saying she is “very concerned”. With weeks to go before Election Day, and growing media coverage over an alleged campaign finance scandal, the 5-term Republican faces the real possibility of being rejected by voters in November–the most concerning development she has faced since she first won her Senate seat back in 1996.

The highly competitive race for Maine’s U.S. Senate seat was thrown into chaos this week following a bombshell investigative report alleging that Republican Senator Susan Collins was the target of a burgeoning FBI corruption probe before the inquiry was derailed.

The extensive report, published Tuesday by the independent investigative newsroom ProPublica, details a sprawling alleged “pay-to-play” operation involving defense contracts and campaign contributions.

According to the outlet, federal agents were actively examining a quid-pro-quo relationship between Collins, her top staffers, a pro-Collins super PAC, and Martin Kao, the former CEO of Hawaii-based defense contractor Navatek until a Justice Department shake-up scuttled the investigation.

Collins and her staff have vehemently denied any impropriety.

The Allegations

The controversy stems from Collins’ fiercely contested 2020 reelection campaign. ProPublica reports that a political consultant managing a super PAC aligned with Collins solicited funding from Navatek. In exchange, Kao reportedly demanded government assistance in securing lucrative federal business.

Kao, who is currently serving an 87-month federal prison sentence for separate wire fraud and money laundering convictions, later told FBI agents and prosecutors that he used a shell company to funnel $150,000 to the pro-Collins super PAC. Following a subsequent meeting, Kao reportedly told internal executives that Collins had committed to securing $32 million in naval contracts for the firm.

According to The New York Times, the FBI initiated its inquiry during the Biden administration. However, the investigation came to a sudden halt last year following a sweeping purge of the bureau ordered by President Donald Trump upon his return to office, which dismantled the unit overseeing high-profile political corruption cases.

Collins Fires Back

Senator Collins and her campaign immediately moved to aggressively push back against the report, labeling the allegations a coordinated political hit job.

“ProPublica took the word of someone who pled guilty to five counts of money laundering, three counts of wire fraud, one count of bank fraud, and making false submissions to the FEC,” said Annie Clark, Collins’ deputy chief of staff, in a statement provided to the Maine Morning Star.

Clark emphasized that the sentencing judge offered Kao no leniency for his cooperation, asserting that the courts and the FBI ultimately found the convicted felon lacked credibility. Collins’ office continues to maintain that no wrongdoing was ever committed by the senator or her staff.

However, ProPublica released a follow-up piece directly addressing Collins’ public pushback. In that report, titled “Susan Collins Dismissed Our Reporting as Old News. Some of Her Claims Aren’t True,” ProPublica cited her public statements accusing the outlet of taking the word of a convicted felon.

The outlet then utilized internal FBI documentation to challenge her assertions that the bureau found Kao entirely uncredible.

What is not in dispute is that the Collins campaign received the campaign funds. But the campaign has maintained that it did not know the funds had an unlawful origin and that the funds were “disgorged” as a result.

Political Fallout

Despite the Collins campaign’s denials, her political opponents have seized on the news. In a state Collins has represented since 1997, her integrity and political moderation has long been central to her political identity. Now both are being questioned at the same time.

Although she has long been labeled a moderate Republican by the media, a label she has accepted for years, research indicates she votes for President Trump’s stated priorities 94.6% percent of the time, according to information revealed by research firm CQ Roll Call.

Her vote to confirm Justice Brett Kavanaugh has also become campaign fodder for Democrats who have heavily criticized that 2018 vote–a vote that was crucial to Kavanaugh’s ascension to the high court, where he would later cast the critical vote to strike down abortion rights, which Collins had long claimed to support.

Her Democratic challenger, former state Senate President Troy Jackson, wasted no time launching a blistering critique into the allegations. “This is corruption of the highest order,” Jackson said in a statement shared by USA TODAY. “We deserve answers about every contract and every conversation that Collins and her team facilitated on the backs of taxpayers.”

With control of the U.S. Senate hanging in the balance, the unfolding scandal promises to be a defining flashpoint for Maine voters ahead of the November midterm elections–and the toughest challenge Collins has faced in her decades of elected office.

Meanwhile, polling shows a dead heat between Collins and Jackson.