Republicans trying to help Sen. Susan Collins win reelection in Maine have managed to pull off an expensive political blunder: spending nearly $25,000 to run attack ads against her Democratic opponent in the wrong Portland.
Yes, the Portland in Oregon. Not the one in Maine, where Collins has represented the state in the Senate for nearly 30 years.
According to NBC News, between $20,000 and $25,000 went toward running the ads in the Portland, Oregon, media market, which extends into Washington state, according to Google’s Political Ad Transparency Center.
The ads, purchased by Cross Screen Media on behalf of the Republican Main Street Partnership PAC, portrayed Democratic challenger Troy Jackson as a “tax-hiker.” But once the group realized it had been paying to reach voters on the other side of the country, the ads came down.
Sarah Chamberlain, CEO of the Republican Main Street Partnership PAC, was not amused.
“I’m absolutely furious,” Chamberlain told NBC News, describing the mistake as “ridiculous.”
“The buyers made a mistake on one of the placements. It’s down now and they’re running it in Portland, Maine,” she said. “It has nothing to do with us. I would never run an ad in Portland, Oregon, for Susan Collins, for Christ’s sake.”
Cross Screen Media, meanwhile, took responsibility for the geographical face-plant.
The episode is hardly ideal for a campaign trying to persuade voters that its candidate deserves another term in Washington.
And Collins has already been taking heat over her defense of her work on President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
During last week’s debate with Jackson, Collins touted her behind-the-scenes efforts to get Canadian concrete, pulp and road salt removed from Trump’s tariff list. She also emphasized that she had voted against the tariffs.
Jackson was unimpressed.
“We can’t eat road salt,” he quipped, pointing to the cost-of-living pressures facing Mainers under Trump’s trade policies.
