Susan Collins isn’t the first name that comes to mind when it comes to hard-core political attacks. In fact, she’s rather feckless on that front. How many times have we heard her say she was ‘Deeply Concerned’ instead of coming right out and saying ‘That jerk flat-out lied to my face!’ She also makes half-hearted attempts at being bipartisan so you’d expect her to be one of the Republicans who spoke out against Vivek Ramaswamy’s vile campaign ad against Amy Acton down in Ohio. Nope. Collins has chosen to imitate Vivek and do a ‘smear my opponent’s character’ try going the smear my opponent strategy.
Granted, in both states the sex part of the respective ads is quite different. Unfortunately when sex is part of things it gets people’s attention which is how all this got started. In Acton’s case, she endured sexual abuse and rape at the hands of her stepfather from age nine to twelve. Ramaswamy produced and aired an ad of Acton’s mother, who sided with the father and helped him flee and hide after being charged hasn’t seen her daughter since Amy was 12 years old, yet forcefully calls her a liar. The rape and sexual abuse aren’t mentioned but the ad is clearly meant to say Acton has lied all these years about it despite plenty of documentation including court records to prove what happened.
To say there has been blowback is an understatement and even some Republicans including the sitting, but term-limited Governor she will replace defending her. Basically the whole thing boomeranged and while it’s not a done deal it looks like disgust at Ramaswamy who was already losing but within the margin of error will lose and perhaps decisively. You’d think that would have given Collins who again I note no one considers an attack dog would have kept her mouth shut about a decades ago relationship Troy Jackson had. But she didn’t as CNN explains:
Maine’s battleground Senate race is being roiled by a late burst of Republican ads mocking Democratic nominee Troy Jackson over his relationship with his longtime partner, whom Sen. Susan Collins and GOP allies have said is his second cousin.
Collins has distanced herself from one radio ad from the Senate Leadership Fund, the top Republican super PAC in Senate races. “If he’ll screw his own family, he’ll screw yours, too,” says the ad, styled as a song about Jackson.
Collins is being like… Susan Collins. Her campaign put out classic Collins crap. A statement that included a call for the ad to be taken down. And that Collins believes there are too many personal attacks in political campaigns and so on. She’s also claiming she/her campaign had no involvement in producing or airing the ad against Jackson. I call bullshit because Collins tossed out the sleazy innuendo personally, and in pure Collins like fashion she assumed would give her a veneer of deniability for what would ensue:
But Jackson’s allies believe Collins implicitly approved scrutiny of his relationship with Lana Pelletier during a September interview.
When asked by Politico’s Jonathan Martin whether Jackson’s “personal life and the mother of his children” were “relevant” to the race, Collins replied, “Well, I’m not going to bring up the fact that the mother of his two children is his second cousin.”
“She’s the one who unleashed this,” said Rebecca Millett, a former state senator who helped lead a “Women for Troy” news conference after the radio ad’s release. “It’s the typical her: Bait and run. And then, ‘Oh, no, this is terrible.’”
Let’s unpack that. First, note that Collins herself suggested inappropriate behavior (involving sex and with whom) back in September in an interview. The response to the Politico reporters question was as noted above “Well, I’m not going to bring up the fact that the mother of his two children is his second cousin.” Uh, Soo-san, you did exactly that! Her answer was a not subtle wink-wink that Jackson doesn’t just have a baby momma but that she’s his cousin. She might as well have called them ‘kissing cousins’ who took it to the next level. Collins is nothing if not savvy and knew damn well someone out there would turn this into an attack ad and former state senator Millett called her out on it.
Despite the innuendo and too common beliefs about inter-family marriage and children of cousins likely to have birth defects the fact is that no state in our country has laws against second cousins getting married and/or having children. In fact, if someone dies intestate (without a will) second cousins don’t stand to get anything when a state trustee distributes assets. Direct family members, parents and siblings come first, and only if there aren’t any do ‘first cousins’ get anything. IF there are no directly family members or first cousins then and only then is an attempt made to find second cousins. Or if they try to collect like first cousins might they are told no.
Still, some people in this country look down their noses at any degree cousins marrying or having relationships. It gets joked about all the time. Collins knows this as well as anyone but she decided to directly engage in her Collins like way of running down Jackson and Pelletier who have been together forty years, in effect calling them immoral trailer trash is the way to go. I’d also ad since CNN doesn’t that Collins has also tarred Jackson and Pelletier’s children who are likely having to put up with whispers and jokes behind their backs. Their kids too. All because Collins decided to be the catalyst for a sleazy campaign ad. It’s not like Pelletier is some “welfare queen’ skank:
Pelletier is a social worker from Allagash who has been in a relationship with Jackson for nearly 40 years. They are not married, but Pelletier describes him as the father of their two children and a grandfather to a recent newborn. The Jackson campaign has not responded to inquiries about whether Pelletier and Jackson are second cousins.
The ad we’re talking about here isn’t the only ad produced and aired by the SLF (Senate Leadership Fund) attacking Jackson, Pelletier or both. However it’s worth nothing there’s another ‘baby mama’ ad from them (on TV instead of radio) branding Jackson a “creep” and suggesting it’s at least partly because he “fathered two kids with his cousin.” As I noted this doesn’t just affect Jackson and Pelletier, and the latter is hitting back:
The chorus of attacks grew loud enough that Pelletier broke her silence in a recent opinion column for the Bangor Daily News. She wrote that she “never imagined U.S. Sen. Susan Collins and her allies would stoop this low.”
“Our children have been dragged into this campaign,” she said. “Our relationship has been mocked. Our family has been talked about as though there is something shameful about who we are or where we come from. There isn’t.”
Why all this matters is that all along Democrats retaking control of the Senate depended on Collins being one of the Republicans that would lose their seat. Look at any analysis of Democrat’s path to a Senate majority and Maine/Susan Collins is considered essential to making that a reality. Even with some possible surprise wins in other places replacing Collins with a Democrat will matter. As I wrote earlier today having 52 seats (or more) provides a buffer if John Fetterman decides to switch sides and that’s a real possibiility.
One last thing about this business of cousins and birth defects/disabilities. Marriage and having children by cousins, starting with first degree ones has been common throughout history. In some places it’s even been encouraged and not just to preserve royal bloodlines. Despite what most people think, the percentage of children with problems that might be genetic is three percent. Not much higher than in the general population. For second cousins it’s barely above the level found in the general population. If fact, there is peer reviewed research that says second cousins having children strengthens both the family’s gene pool and that of the population they live in!
Of course, that doesn’t matter in the here and now. People will roll their eyes, make wisecracks and so on. And those kids and eventually their kids will bear the burden of Collin’s sleaze. How will this play out in the closing days of the race? I urge you to read the entire CNN article which contains more detail. From where I sit, having grown up in a region of great natural beauty that masks a lot of violence (including sexual – like a hamlet south of my hometown where back then at least girls too often would lose their virginity to brothers and fathers, often by physical force) in largely rural Maine it could help Collins once again hang on to her seat. Or, since Mainers are a polite people (not Canada polite but more like Canadiens than the rest of the U.S.) it might backfire.
I sure hope it’s the latter. There’s only days to go before voting concludes and hopefully those who have so often been upset with Collins but voted for her anyway will feel disgust at what she’s wrought. We can hope that she suffers a backlash just like Ramaswamy has brought on himself and she’s finally sent packing.
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