Collins, a “Big Money 20” target, took $165,000 from corporate PACs in Q2 of 2019
Sara Gideon refuses corporate PAC money
Lacking real grassroots support from Mainers and facing the toughest reelection campaign of her career, Senator Susan Collins is trying to distance herself from the millions she has taken from corporate PACs. In Q2 of 2019 alone, Senator Collins took $165,000 from corporate PACs, but her campaign is stating that she has received $0 from corporate special interests over her career. A quick look at FEC records show that she has taken millions of dollars from corporate PACs over her 22 year career.
Meanwhile, End Citizens United-endorsed candidate Sara Gideon is running a grassroots-powered campaign and she’s doing it without a dime of corporate PAC money.
“Senator Collins can’t have it both ways,” said End Citizens United President Tiffany Muller. “She can’t take millions of dollars from corporate PACs and then tell Mainers that she doesn’t take corporate special interest money. Senator Collins says she’s an independent voice for Maine, but she’s become a reliable vote for Mitch McConnell and the corporate special interests that fill her campaign coffers. Mainers know she’s not looking out for them.”
Corporate PACs exist to buy access and influence policy in order to benefit the corporation’s bottom line. Corporate PACs consistently give more to candidates than any other type of PAC every election cycle. Candidates who refuse corporate PAC money, like Sara Gideon, are sending a powerful message that they’re fighting to unrig the system.
During the 2018 election cycle, ECU led the movement among candidates to reject corporate PAC money in their campaigns. Fifty-eight members of the 116th Congress are refusing to take corporate PAC money, including 36 freshman members. The “no corporate PAC” pledge elevated the issue of money-in-politics as a top priority in the 2018 election and helped create the momentum to make a comprehensive reform bill the very first bill the new Democratic House took up as H.R. 1.
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