Collins Watch

@aobrien2010 Video?

State Rep. Valli Geiger says it took pressure from Graham Platner to get Governor Janet Mills to propose funding for rape kit tracking after vetoing her rape kit bill.

@aobrien2010 #MEpolitics

I find it hard to trust the guy who led the campaign against Maine's Medicaid expansion referendum to make health care more affordable. #mepolitics

@aseitzwald But if you're covering a private event that candidates are using to present a false facade of accessibility, isn't there the risk that you wind up serving their goals at the *expense* of the public? Isn't that at least delicate terrain that you have to approach carefully?

@CollinsWatch No. Providing information to the public that they could not personally obtain themselves is kind of the whole point of journalism, or at least one of them.

NEW: Janet Mills Visits Rockland, Ends Up in The Atlantic. Earlier this month, I was surprised to find @MarkLeibovich with the governor at a small non-public campaign stop touring an new apt. development. His profile just dropped, so we blogged it. midcoastvillager.com/news/janet-mil…

@aseitzwald Understood. I wonder if you have any qualms about consenting to that arrangement in the context of a race where both Collins and Mills are staging few (if any?) genuinely public events -- but using private events (Potemkin events?) to seem accessible in ads and on social media.

@CollinsWatch The campaign. It wasn't a secret, it just wasn't open the public. These are common, typically called OTRs (as in "off the records," but record in this case is the public schedule, not journalistic record). I noted that to explain why there were so few people in the photo.

@aobrien2010 Wild construction here: "A significant factor in [fewer probes] has been the grows' shift into legal markets. Many once-illicit operations have become licensed to grow legally in Maine’s loosely regulated medical cannabis industry, often to subvert law enforcement scrutiny."

Why has enforcement slowed against Maine's Chinese marijuana grows? pressherald.com/2026/03/11/why… (Via Press Herald)

For years, Susan Collins & the Maine Wire have been fear mongering about transnational criminal Chinese gangs turning Maine into a narco state. But daddy Trump has done jack shit about it.

@SenSusanCollins Notice the NFIB sticker in the window in the bottom left image. Susan Collins sticking to friendly right-wing territory. #MEpolitics motherjones.com/politics/2012/…

Small businesses are the backbone of Maine’s economy & I’m proud to advocate for policies that support them!

@SenSusanCollins She voted with Trump 95% of the time in 2025 -- more than she has with any other president in any year including Trump 1.0. That's not bipartisan. #MEpolitics

Senator Collins is delivering bipartisan results: ✅ New bill to honor our fallen firefighters. ✅ Legislation to lower costs for diabetes treatments for Medicare beneficiaries. ✅ Awarded for her leadership in maritime research by the Sea Grant Association. Experienced, steady leadership for Maine. ⚓ 🌲 #maine #teamcollins #susancollins #maine2026

@SenatorCollins People are going off their meds and losing their health coverage because you though tax cuts for the rich and starting dumb wars were a better use of $$$. #MEpolitics

As Co-Chairs of the Senate Diabetes Caucus, @SenatorShaheen and I are always working to improve the lives and treatment options for people with this disease. Our DIABETES Act does just that by streamlining coverage for insulin pumps and expanding diabetes education and training for patients and providers.

@aseitzwald That's fair. Although I've heard the untested line before.

@CollinsWatch Well yes, but mainly watch the clip. She’s making the case against Platner in a very direct way.

Definitely feels like Janet Mills has suddenly shifted into a higher gear after a lower key first 6 months that had even some allies anxious for more.

@DISivak Susan Collins voted to DEFUND MAINE SCHOOLS if the state didn't abandon its LePage-era, common sense policy around trans kids in after school sports (all TWO of them!) so not sure why this is notable. She clearly thinks stigmatizing trans kids is super important! #MEpolitics

Interesting: On Hugh Hewitt today, Susan Collins ties herself to Trump on transgender politics: “I’m solidly on Trump’s side about transgender athletes competing in girls’ and women’s sports.” A sign GOP still views this as a potent attack line. Collins goes on to accuse Janet Mills of being “on the side of having transgender athletes be able to compete on girls’ sports teams.” “And I just don’t think that’s fair or safe.”

@SenSusanCollins @usahockey Has anyone ever heard Susan Collins use the phrase "representing the 207"? If you're going to make up a fake voice for your boss...don't make it sound fake! #MEpolitics

Congratulations to @USAHockey on WINNING GOLD in Italy! A massive shoutout to UMaine’s own Jeremy Swayman for representing the 207 on the world stage. The Maine to USA pipeline is real! 🐻 🏒

@JamesPindell She's been running for five years. By treating her PR nonsense as news you're telling on yourself. #MEpolitics

@SenSusanCollins You were in the oval office holding a MAGA hat and smiling literally last week. #MEpolitics

Why I'm running. bangordailynews.com/2026/02/10/opi…

@igorbobic She's been running for reelection for five years. #MEpolitics

Susan Collins formally announces run for reelection youtu.be/O9N0SkDFjf0?si…

@jamiedupree She's been running for reelection for five years. #MEpolitics

Sen. Susan Collins R-ME is running for reelection. She was first elected to the Senate in 1996.

@aobrien2010 Did the article mention that Susan Collins has given lots of $$$ to the fake think tank that Gagnon runs over the years? Or that he's a former Susan Collins staffer? #MEpolitics

The CEO who oversees the white nationalist Maine Wire is “nonpartisan?” 🤣🤣🤣 The Hill is such a joke.

@SteveCollinsSJ This you? #MEpolitics

An old adage that journalists embrace is that our mission is to comfort the afflicted & afflict the comfortable. Every news organization falls short, sadly, but @TheMaineWire totally flips the adage around daily, taking aim at the afflicted in the service of the comfortable.