Dem
54
GOP
46
The debate between Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and challenger Troy Jackson was also nasty. In this hyperpartisan environment, how could it be otherwise? It was the third of four scheduled debates.
Collins' main pitch is that due to her long seniority, she has a lot of power in the Senate. She currently chairs the Appropriations Committee. She said she used it to bring home the bacon to Maine, a poor rural state. Jackson countered by saying she used her power to enable Donald Trump, nominally opposing him only when she was sure her vote wasn't actually needed.
At one point, Collins brought up the issue of fraud in Medicare and Medicaid. Jackson came back by reminding her and the voters that last year, the FBI shut down an investigation about fraud allegedly perpetrated by one of Collins' big donors. Collins didn't like that much. She said he was impugning her integrity. He said he didn't claim she was guilty, but that the FBI was certainly investigating until Trump shut it all down.
Iran was a big issue. Jackson blamed the surge in prices on the Iran war and on her for not stopping it. She said there weren't enough votes in the Senate to stop it. He said that is an excellent argument for having more Democrats in the Senate.
Diesel isn't a big issue in Maine because Maine's farms don't use massive equipment like farms in the Midwest. Most are small family farms that grow berries, raise chickens, provide dairy products, and tap maple syrup. However, home heating oil is used to heat half the homes in cold Maine and is a very big issue. Heating oil is chemically very similar to #2 diesel and its price has soared along with diesel. Jackson blamed Collins for the price jump.
Health care was also a contentious issue. Jackson said that Collins supported cuts to health care funding by being the deciding vote on a procedural roll call that could have blocked it. On the actual vote, she voted no and objected to the exact way he phrased his attack on her. To be precise, he should have said: "When she had the power to block the cuts she decided not to use that power, and later when her vote didn't matter, she voted against the cuts." He didn't because voters don't understand "process" stuff. They argued about the semantics of that. Collins said that Jackson couldn't tell Medicare from Medicaid and he was very offended, saying: "Senator Collins is not going to stand there and school me on what I know."
Another point of contention was campaign finance. Jackson accused Collins of taking donations from almost 100 billionaires and their wives. She didn't deny that but accused him of hiding his donors because he didn't file an FEC report in July. That is true, but it is because he wasn't in the race July 1 and only joined it after Graham Platner dropped out, so her charge is very misleading. He has filed all the reports he was required to file. He said he will release his report on Thursday, which is the date it is due.
In short, it is clear that each candidate really despises and does not respect the other. Each one tried to get under the other's skin and generally succeeded. Considering that Collins makes a big fuss about her bipartisanship fetish, this tends to work against her. (V)