Susan Collins hammered by constituent she insulted: 'We expect you to listen to us'

One of Sen. Susan Collins’ (R-ME) constituents has placed another full-page ad in a local newspaper calling her out for refusing to answer his questions during a recent encounter at the airport, and for refusing to respond to his first ad last week.

Maine resident Erik Mercer placed the second full-page ad in the Maine Sunday Telegram.

“Senator Collins, you had an opportunity to answer my questions,” the ad read. “I am still waiting — and it turns out I am not the only one.”

Mercer originally placed a full-page ad in last week’s Portland Press Herald, summarizing an interaction he’d had with the senator at the airport in Washington, D.C., prior to a flight to Portland, Maine. Mercer said he tried to broach several topics with Collins, including foreign interference in U.S. elections and her vote to confirm Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, despite several allegations of sexual assault against him.

Collins declined to respond. “We parted agreeing to disagree,” Mercer wrote at the time. But, he said, “on the jet bridge, I heard you comment to someone that a constituent had just been very rude to you.”

He said it had been his intention to “have a thoughtful discussion across ideological lines,” something fellow passengers who witnessed the interaction thanked him for later.

“I am still waiting for answers to my questions. They are still waiting too,” he wrote.

For his latest ad, Mercer gave others the opportunity to sign his letter to Collins online. More than 200 people took him up on the offer.

In the new ad, Mercer outlined additional questions for Collins.

“Why haven’t you held a town hall in over twenty years?” he wrote. “Are you interested in interacting with the people of Maine or is it only the big money donors who fund your campaigns that have your ear?”

The ad also commented on Collins’ voting record.

“You voted for the tax bill that was a giveaway to wealthy people and big corporations. You took votes that threaten health care reform. You voted for judges that put a woman’s right to choose at risk,” it stated. “We expect you to listen to us, not Mitch McConnell, President Trump, and your wealthy, out of state donors.”

Visiting my parents in Portland this weekend so get to see another full page ad in Maine Sunday Telegram from Erik Mercer with questions for @SenatorCollins. Looks like lots of people want answers pic.twitter.com/WPzaQrszJk

— Joe Sudbay (@JoeSudbay) October 20, 2019

The new ad claims Collins never responded to the questions he posed in their initial meeting, nor the first ad itself. Neither the Collins campaign nor Collins’ senate office replied to repeated requests for comment.

The back-to-back full-page ads come as Collins faces one of the toughest reelection campaigns in her long Senate career. Recent polling in Maine shows Collins with lower approval numbers in the state than Donald Trump, as well as losing to a generic Democrat if the election were held today.

One of Collins’ Democratic challengers, Sara Gideon, has also raised more than $1 million more than Collins over the past three months.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.