A crowdfunding campaign aimed at encouraging Sen. Susan Collins Susan Margaret CollinsSchumer tees up vote on Jan. 6 commission bill Senators struggle to save Jan. 6 commission Overnight Health Care: Moderna says COVID-19 vaccine is 100 percent effective in 12- to 17-year-olds | US achieves full vaccinations for half of adults | Trump on Wuhan lab: Now everyone agrees 'I was right' MORE (R-Maine) to vote against President Trump Donald TrumpTrump lashes out after grand jury seated for New York criminal probe Schumer tees up vote on Jan. 6 commission bill Senators struggle to save Jan. 6 commission MORE’s Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, surpassed $1 million on Tuesday. The national “Be A Hero” campaign encouraged people to donate at least $20.20 to a future Collins Democratic challenger if she votes “yes” on Kavanaugh’s confirmation. Collins is not up for reelection until 2020. ADVERTISEMENT The money will be charged to donors if she votes to approve Kavanaugh, organizers said. More than 36,500 people made pledges totaling more than $1,018,200 on the Crowdpac page as of Tuesday afternoon. Maine People's Alliance and Mainers for Accountable Leadership have teamed up for the effort and have an ultimate goal of raising $1.3 million. “Your swing vote could decide whether a rubber stamp for Trump’s anti-healthcare, anti-woman, anti-labor agenda gets confirmed to the Supreme Court–costing millions of Americans their healthcare, their right to choose, and their lives,” the Crowdpac page reads. Collins brushed off the campaign earlier Tuesday. "I consider this quid pro quo fundraising to be the equivalent of an attempt to bribe me to vote against Judge Kavanaugh," Collins told conservative news outlet Newsmax. She said the crowdfunding does nothing to influence her vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination. “I think it demonstrates the new lows to which the judge’s opponents have stooped,” Collins said. The centrist Republican is seen as a swing vote in the confirmation process and said she would not vote for a nominee who was “hostile” toward the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. Activists sent Collins 3,000 coat hangers — a symbol of back-alley abortions — in efforts to persuade her to vote “no.” She said Kavanaugh, during a meeting, told her he considered the case to be established precedent.<doc-sep>WASHINGTON - Sen. Susan Collins' announcement Friday that she would vote "yes" on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh likely ended the uncertainty over his confirmation. But while Collins spoke on the Senate floor and explained why she would be voting for Kavanaugh, people angry over her decision were donating cash to defeat her in her next election. More than $50,000 was given over the course of her nearly 45-minute speech, bringing the total raised on an online crowdfunding campaign to defeat Collins in her 2020 election to more than $3 million as of 7 p.m. The campaign by three activists groups, Be A Hero Team, Maine People's Alliance and Mainers for Accountable Leadership, had been criticized by Collins and others over several weeks as a possible attempt to bribe Collins into voting against Kavanaugh. The groups started raising money in August, asking people across the nation to donate to Collins' opponent in an attempt to show her the stark opposition to Kavanaugh. No one has yet filed to run against Collins in 2020. Susan Rice, former President Barack Obama's National Security Adviser and United Nations Ambassador, suggested on Twitter Friday that she could challenge Collins. The donation page, titled "Either Sen. Collins VOTES NO on Kavanaugh OR we fund her future opponent" went down briefly on crowdfunding website crowdpac.com Friday afternoon because of "overwhelming" traffic to the page, Be a Hero said in a statement. The groups are also raising money on the website ActBlue and say in total, between the two the amount has topped $3 million. The groups say donations are coming in every three seconds. More:Sen. Susan Collins a 'yes' on Kavanaugh, drawing anger from protesters and praise from GOP More:Brett Kavanaugh moves towards Supreme Court confirmation after Susan Collins, Joe Manchin pledge support The page has said those donating wouldn't be charged if Collins voted no on Kavanaugh. But on Friday, Collins seemingly put an end to the uncertainty, giving a nearly 45-minute speech on the Senate floor that explained her process and why she'd be voting to confirm him. "Susan Collins has betrayed the people, and especially the women and survivors, of Maine," the campaign organizers said in a statement. "Thousands of Mainers wrote, called, visited, protested, begged and pleaded with Susan Collins to do the right thing - to be a hero - and vote no. She ignored them." The statement continued, "For years she has claimed to be an independent, a different kind of Republican, but today she shattered that facade forever. Her vote will reverberate long after she has left the Senate." The organizers said they were committed to defeating Collins in 2020 and pledged to "never let her forget" this decision. "Maine deserves a Senator who would recoil at the idea of confirming a proven liar, an emotionally unstable partisan, to the Supreme Court," the statement said. "Maine deserves a Senator who will believe survivors, who will listen to their stories, and who will represent them with honor. Susan Collins is no longer capable of that." During her speech on the floor, Collins went through the issues, from Obamacare, same-sex marriage and abortion rights, and said Kavanaugh's record and pledges before Congress were enough to keep her vote. She said Christine Blasey Ford, who alleged Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were teens, offered a compelling testimony before Congress, but ultimately no one could vouch for her claims or even remember the party. Collins said the allegations, in her eyes, "fail to meet the 'more likely than not'" standard. She said she believes voting against Kavanaugh without witnesses or proof could start a "dangerous" precedent. "I do not believe that these charges can fairly prevent Judge Kavanaugh from serving on the court," Collins said, adding that her decision should not be "misconstrued as suggesting that unwanted sexual contact of any nature is not a serious problem in this country." A watchdog group asked the Justice Department to investigate the campaign against Collins out of concern the money donated was an attempt to bribe Collins' vote and called it illegal. It's illegal if "the payments are made in return for an explicit promise or undertaking by the official to perform or not to perform an official act," the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT) wrote in a letter to the Justice Department.<doc-sep>On Friday afternoon, as Maine Sen. Susan Collins gave a speech on the Senate floor explaining why she would vote in favor of Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court, the progressive crowdfunding platform Crowdpac began receiving a flood of campaign donations for her eventual Democratic challenger when she runs for re-election in 2020. In fact, it appears that Crowdpac was deluged by so many donations that it shut down due to an internal server error. The website is still down as of this writing. Advertisement As Kavanaugh’s messy confirmation fight was raging over the past few weeks, Crowdpac had been collecting donation pledges ranging from $1 to $2,700 for two progressive Maine groups that would use the funds toward unseating Collins. However, the conceit was that these donations would only be processed if Collins voted “Yes” on Kavanaugh, since she was seen as one of the handful of senators who were on the fence about the nomination. Collins, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Republican election lawyer Cleta Mitchell alleged that this fundraising effort amounted to a bribery scheme to pressure the Maine senator into voting against Kavanaugh. The crowdfunding campaign had raised more than $1 million by early September. Advertisement Advertisement When Collins announced that she would in fact be supporting the nominee, donations for her eventual opponent skyrocketed. Earlier in the day, the raised funds stood at around $1.8 million. Because the Crowdpac site is currently down, it’s difficult to tell just how much money the campaign managed to raise after Collins’ decision became clear, but reports suggest that the total amount raised blew past the $2 million mark while she was still speaking. Advertisement JUST NOW: As Susan Collins speaks about Kavanaugh, the CrowdPac funding her opponent unless she votes NO just soars tens of thousands of dollars, surpassing the $2 million mark!https://t.co/doVlNyogCr pic.twitter.com/iSBRGZrAs8 — jordan (@JordanUhl) October 5, 2018 Crowdpac announced that it will be back online shortly.<doc-sep>An effort to replace Susan Collins in the U.S. Senate has already raised more than $2 million and that was before the Maine Republican announced that she was voting to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court. Just minutes after Collins’s announcement that she is voting yes on Kavanaugh, the Crowdpac site to donate to the effort appeared to have crashed, perhaps from volume of interest.Kavanaugh was confirmed with a vote of 50-48-1. Collins did vote to confirm Kavanaugh. JUST NOW: As Susan Collins speaks about Kavanaugh, the CrowdPac funding her opponent unless she votes NO just soars tens of thousands of dollars, surpassing the $2 million mark!https://t.co/doVlNyogCr pic.twitter.com/iSBRGZrAs8 — jordan (@JordanUhl) October 5, 2018 The crowdfunding effort was organized by a man named Ady Barkan. The site announces, “Tell Senator Susan Collins to #BeAHero. Vote NO on Kavanaugh. If she votes for him, your money will go to fund her future opponent.” According to Vox, the crowdfunding campaign was “launched by ALS patient and activist Ady Barkan, the grassroots community action organization Maine People’s Alliance, and the activist and watchdog group Mainers for Accountable Leadership.” I may be losing my voice, but I can still send a message, and I have one for @SenatorCollins: If you vote for Kavanaugh we will fund your future opponent for 2020. Vote NO and #StopKavanaugh #BeAHero Pledge $20.20 to this campaign and share it: https://t.co/4HPtATVrXc pic.twitter.com/ZkdI3u57yY — Ady Barkan?? (@AdyBarkan) August 16, 2018 Barkan revealed that the CrowdPac site had crashed and offered people another option. While Crowdpac is down (from overwhelming traffic), you can donate here to @SenatorCollins’ 2020 opponent.https://t.co/WsijVuCSc9 — Ady Barkan?? (@AdyBarkan) October 5, 2018 He was urging people to pledge $20.20. Well we crashed Crowdpac but we arent stopping pledge $20.20 now here, its over for her: https://t.co/WsijVuUtAJ — Ady Barkan?? (@AdyBarkan) October 5, 2018 President Barack Obama’s former National Security Adviser Susan Rice has already indicated she wants to run against Collins, although she later added, “many thanks for the encourgement (sic). 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.” In a lengthy speech, Collins said she simply did not see enough corroboration to vote no against Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, who has been accused of sexual assault charges he denies. In her speech, Susan Collins decried a confirmation process that she said was “dysfunctional” and “looks more like a caricature of a gutter level political campaign.” She added that she believes “Judge Kavanaugh is more of a centrist than some of his critics maintain…Certain fundamental legal principles about due process, the presumption of innocence and fairness, do bear on my thinking, and I can not abandon them. We will be ill-served in the long run if we abandon the presumption of innocence and fairness, tempting though it may be. When passions are most inflamed, fairness is most in jeopardy.” Sen. Susan Collins will vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh, saying she hopes he "will work to lessen the divisions in the Supreme Court, so that we have far fewer 5-4 decisions, and so that public confidence…in our highest court is restored." https://t.co/x6jxBAPeW3 pic.twitter.com/tXL7P6s50G — ABC News (@ABC) October 5, 2018 Collins said she found Kavanaugh’s accuser Dr. Christine Blasey Ford “sincere, painful and compelling. I believe she is a survivor of a sexual assault and that this trauma has upended her life. Nevertheless the four witnesses she named could not corroborate any of the events of that evening gathering where she says the assault occurred. None of the individuals Professor Ford says were at the party has any recollection at all of that night. Judge Kavanaugh forcefully denied the allegations.” Collins then named the other people Ford said were at the party who said they had no recollection of it: Mark Judge, PJ Smyth, and Ford’s own friend, Leland Keyser. “Not a single person has contacted her to say I was at the party that night…not a single person has come forward to say they were the one who drove her home or were in the car with her that night,” said Collins. You can read her statement in full here. “The allegations failed to meet the more likely than not standard,” concluded Collins, then revealing she will vote yes. Her vote, along with the announced yes votes of Democrat Joe Manchin and Republican Jeff Flake, will be enough to confirm Kavanaugh providing nothing changes in the next 24 hours. Kavanaugh opponents on social media expressed anger at Collins, whereas Kavanaugh supporters praised her. A sampling: The state of Maine is beautiful. The people of Maine are absolutely incredible. They deserve better than Susan Collins. So. Much. Better. — Chris Lundberg (@Lundy330) October 5, 2018 You just secured your place on the wrong side of history @SenatorCollins But to be fair, the men you’ve empowered are going to write you out of history anyway. They always do. #KavanaughVote #VoteHerOut #VoteNoKavanaugh — C.M. Landrus (@CMLandrus) October 5, 2018 Donating to your opponent! You're a horrible person! — Russell H. Mathews (@RustyMathews) October 5, 2018 You did the right thing today. Your speech proved that you did your research and considered all avenues. Great job! You have protected the law and liberty today. — Zack Anderson (@washedclean2006) October 5, 2018<doc-sep>
Sen. Susan Collins Susan Margaret CollinsSchumer tees up vote on Jan. 6 commission bill Senators struggle to save Jan. 6 commission Overnight Health Care: Moderna says COVID-19 vaccine is 100 percent effective in 12- to 17-year-olds | US achieves full vaccinations for half of adults | Trump on Wuhan lab: Now everyone agrees 'I was right' MORE (R-Maine) says she is not swayed by crowdfunding aimed at encouraging her to oppose Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, comparing the effort to a "bribe." "I consider this quid pro quo fundraising to be the equivalent of an attempt to bribe me to vote against Judge Kavanaugh," Collins told conservative news outlet Newsmax. ADVERTISEMENT Two groups of Maine progressives have pledged to donate up to $1.3 million to Collins's next opponent if the Maine senator votes to confirm Kavanaugh, Newsmax reported. Collins is not up for reelection until 2020. Donors have been asked to pledge money against Collins, but their credit cards will only be charged if she votes "yes" on Kavanaugh. “If I vote against him, the money is refunded to the donors," Collins said. "If I vote for him, the money is given to my opponent for the 2020 race." "This effort will not influence my vote at all,” she added. “I think it demonstrates the new lows to which the judge’s opponents have stooped.” Maine People's Alliance and Mainers for Accountable Leadership have teamed up to crowdsource the effort. They had received $987,922 from 35,317 pledges as of Tuesday morning with a goal of $1.3 million. "The people of Maine are asking you to be a hero, Senator Collins," the crowdfunding page states. "Your swing vote could decide whether a rubber stamp for Trump’s anti-healthcare, anti-woman, anti-labor agenda gets confirmed to the Supreme Court–costing millions of Americans their healthcare, their right to choose, and their lives." The statement warns Collins that the groups intend to "get you out of office" following a "yes" vote. "The idea of Susan Collins attacking an effort by 35,000 small dollar donors as bribery is politics at its worst," Marie Follayttar, co-director of Mainers for Accountable Leadership, said in a statement to The Hill. "Sen. Collins owes it to her constituents to hear them out, and explain why Judge Kavanaugh's demonstrated hostility to Roe v. Wade, opposition to covering pre-existing conditions and repeated lies is not disqualifying." "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 fabric of our democracy," Follayttar added. Though Collins has stated multiple times that efforts by liberal activists will not sway her vote, she has faced a barrage of protests in recent weeks. Activists have reportedly sent Collins more than 3,000 coat hangers, evoking back-alley abortions, in their efforts to persuade her to vote against Kavanaugh's confirmation. Collins, a centrist Republican, is seen as a swing vote in Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing. She has said she wouldn’t vote to confirm a nominee who was hostile to Roe v. Wade. After a meeting with Kavanaugh last month, she said she was reassured that the nominee believes Roe v. Wade is “settled law.” --This report was updated on Sept. 12 at 2:30 p.m.