Don’t Get Your Hopes Up About Susan Collins
Maine’s liberal activists don’t expect the senator to take on the GOP
With Election Day just six weeks away, Susan Collins is staring at yet another potential Supreme Court controversy. Nearly two years after the Maine senator voted to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the nation’s highest court, she’s again at the center of a battle over a vacant court position, this time centered around Senate Republicans’ efforts to rush through President Trump’s pick for the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat.
Collins knows better than anyone how much of a conundrum she now faces. Her stunning drop in popularity — she trails her opponent, Democratic nominee Sara Gideon, by five points in the polls, and now ranks as the second-least popular senator in the country — is owed in large part to her Kavanaugh vote. Her decision to confirm him didn’t sit well with her state’s female constituents and ultimately helped local activist organizations raise millions toward unseating her. Collins in fact still hasn’t escaped Kavanaugh’s shadow: Ads continue to run in the state excoriating her for the vote.
So far Collins has been characteristically measured about Ginsburg’s seat, saying that while she believes it should be filled by the president elected in November, if Trump chooses a nominee (a scenario that seems all but guaranteed) the Senate Judiciary Committee must then start “the process of reviewing his nominee’s credentials.” Collins’ office did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
To liberal activists in the state, it feels like a familiar routine. “Susan Collins has said she does not support a vote prior to the election; she has not said she will not vote,” said Marie Follayttar, executive director of Mainers for Accountable Leadership.
McConnell appears to have every intention to rush through a nomination for whomever Trump puts forth. Doing so would give conservatives a 6–3 majority on the Supreme Court and the chance to put a conservative stamp on such…
