Susan Collins announced support for Kavanaugh — causing site to fund future opponent to crash

A crowdfunding site where activists have been raising money to defeat Sen. Susan Collins in 2020 was inundated with pledges Friday afternoon, after the Maine Republican announced she would support Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court.

By 3:55 p.m., the site had crashed, apparently overwhelmed.

“Senator Susan Collins has people more motivated than we’ve ever seen before,” Crowdpac tweeted. “Hold tight, we’ll be back shortly.”

The site was back online a little less than two hours later. By Saturday afternoon, the campaign that vows to support Collins’s future opponent had surpassed $3.2 million — not an insignificant amount for a political race in a state with among the smallest populations in the country (1.3 million).

A group of liberal activists began the campaign last month to pressure Collins, a key swing vote in Kavanaugh’s nomination, to vote against President Trump’s nominee. If Collins voted no, donations would not be withdrawn from donors. If she voted yes, the pledges would fund the campaign of the Maine Democrat who wins the nomination for the Senate seat in two years.

[Activists raised $1 million to defeat Susan Collins if she votes for Kavanaugh. She says it’s bribery.]

Maine People’s Alliance, Mainers for Accountable Leadership and activist Ady Barkan have doubled their original goal to $4 million. The unusual fundraising effort is a sign of an energized Democratic electorate and could set the stage for Collins’s reelection effort.

As the pledges poured in Friday, yet another unusual series of events in these hyperpartisan times unfolded on social media: the online crowdsourcing for a nominee and that nominee’s future campaign staff.

“Who wants to run for Senate in Maine? There will be an army of supporters with you,” tweeted Jen Psaki, White House communications director under President Barack Obama.

“Me,” Susan E. Rice, Obama’s former United Nations ambassador and national security adviser, replied, raising a flurry of questions about what her plans are.

Rice, whose family is from Portland, Maine, later clarified, saying she’s not making any announcements.

Susan Rice
✔
@AmbassadorRice
Many thanks for the encourgement. I’m not making any announcements. Like so many Americans, I am deeply disappointed in Senator Collins’ vote for Kavanaugh. Maine and America deserve better.

Susan Rice
✔
@AmbassadorRice
Me https://twitter.com/jrpsaki/status/1048302700100763650 …

1:40 AM - Oct 6, 2018
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Jenna Lowenstein, a Democratic digital strategist who worked on Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, also said she had enlisted 75 political staff members to help elect Collins’s future challenger. In a Google docs sign-up sheet she created, Lowenstein promised to send volunteers to the campaign as soon as there is one.

“Nothing like starting with binders full of women (and men) ready to take up the fight,” she wrote.

Kasey O’Brien of Crowdpac said the site had a 98 percent increase in traffic during Collins’s speech on the Senate floor Friday.

A spokeswoman for Collins has sharply criticized the crowdfunding effort, calling it an attempt at extortion.

“And anybody who thinks these tactics would work on Senator Collins obviously doesn’t know her. Senator Collins will make up her mind based on the merits of the nomination. Threats or other attempts to bully her will not play a factor in her decision making whatsoever,” Annie Clark said in a statement before the senator announced her support for Kavanaugh.

One ethics expert told The Washington Post that the crowdfunding campaign may very well violate federal bribery statutes, which prohibit giving or offering anything of value to government officials in exchange for any acts or votes.

Marie Follayttar, co-director of Mainers for Accountable Leadership, denounced bribery accusations.

[As the decision loomed, anti-Kavanaugh demonstrators weighed on a Maine senator’s tiny staff]

“The idea of Susan Collins attacking an effort by 35,000 small dollar donors as bribery is politics at its worst. Thousands of Mainers are trying desperately to tell her that she needs to protect abortion access and critical healthcare coverage across the country by voting ‘no’ on Kavanaugh,” Follayttar said in a statement. “If she doesn’t, we absolutely have the right to prepare to unseat her given everything Judge Kavanaugh would do on the Supreme Court to make life worse for Maine women, Mainers with pre-existing conditions and Mainers who care about [the] fabric of our democracy. Unlike Supreme Court judges, Senators do not enjoy a lifetime guarantee of their seat; they are accountable to the people.”

After a bitter and partisan battle, the Senate on Saturday confirmed Kavanaugh in a 50-to-48 vote, cementing a conservative majority on the nation’s highest court. Hundreds of protesters — many chanting, “We believe survivors!” “Vote them out!” and “Shame, shame, shame” — converged on the U.S. Capitol as the Senate prepared to vote.

Kavanaugh’s confirmation was all but certain on Friday after Collins, Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) said they would vote for the judge. One Republican, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), broke with her party.

Collins had initially expressed concern about threats to Roe v. Wade if Kavanaugh were confirmed, effectively shifting the Supreme Court to the right for decades. The senator also had been among the holdout votes amid an FBI investigation of sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh, whose nomination seemed in peril three weeks ago.

Seung Min Kim and John Wagner contributed to this report.

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