Collins campaign scrambling as re-election strategy collapses: insiders

Maine Republican Susan Collins' carefully constructed Senate re-election strategy just collapsed, according to a new report.

Democrat Graham Platner's abrupt exit from Maine's US Senate race has left Collins' campaign scrambling after he suspended his campaign while facing multiple credible allegations of sexual misconduct and assault—eliminating what insiders viewed as Collins' most valuable asset: an opponent so flawed that voters might overlook her own vulnerabilities.

According to Politico, Platner was supposed to be the perfect foil. Collins' team had spent months stockpiling opposition research, betting his personal scandals would dominate news coverage and allow the senator to reposition herself as the more trustworthy choice. That calculation is now worthless because the election focus can now return to the unpopularity of Donald Trump who is casting a cloud over all Republicans who will be on the ballot in November.

"She can certainly win, but they didn't want to change candidates," one GOP operative told Politico. "The stuff we already knew about Platner was going to propel Collins to overcome the Trump anchor. Now it's going to be a Democrat with a cleaner record, presumably."

According to the report, the GOP hope was to use a damaged opponent to distract from the central issue Collins has been desperately trying to avoid—her status as a Republican candidate in a state that has grown increasingly hostile to Trump and his party.

Internal polling confirmed how dependent Collins was on this strategy, Politico's Sophia Cai wrote. Platner trailed her in his own campaign's flash poll, but three alternative Democratic candidates who lost the gubernatorial primary last month either led Collins or ran neck-and-neck with her.

Collins' team will scramble to rebuild opposition research from scratch, but the senator's advisers insist she can still win but the specter of Trump will once again loom large.