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By Hugh Cameron
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The final days of the Maine Senate race are seeing the incumbent Republican Susan Collins face criticism for an attack on her Democrat rival, Troy Jackson, over the latter’s logger background.
A new ad campaign from the Collins camp features Bill Green, the retired News Center Maine sportscaster. He says that Maine politics has gone into "the gutter," before endorsing Susan Collins as "one of the most decent and honest people I know."
"I also know Troy Jackson, but we’re not talking about buying a cord of wood here," Green says. "We're sending someone to the U.S. Senate, and Troy doesn't have the tools he needs to be effective."
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In response, Jackson called both Green and Collins "out of touch" and said the pair "talk down to people like me."
"But this is about a cord of wood," Jackson said in a video posted to X. "It’s about an economy that Senator Collins has created that people can’t afford to heat their homes."
And the ad has drawn significant criticism in Maine, with voters and political figures saying that Collins’s campaign had demeaned the state’s blue-collar workers.
"Susan Collins has spent the last 30 years trying to convince us that every Mainer has a cold and she's the only one with a tissue," said Jason Shedlock. He is president of the Maine Building and Construction Trades Council and a Democratic candidate for Maine House District 120.
"We're not buying it," Shedlock told Newsweek. "And with the price of that cord of wood or gallon of oil, we couldn't afford to anyway."
"Bill Green’s latest ad for Susan Collins made my jaw drop," Jordan Wood, a former Democratic candidate for Congress in Maine, wrote on X. "A pathetic end to both of their careers. Mainers will reject these despicable attacks next Tuesday."
Newsweek has contacted the Collins campaign outside of regular working hours for comment and is awaiting a response.
What Was in the Ad?
Jackson’s campaign has touted his blue-collar background throughout the race, often describing him as a "fifth-generation logger from Allagash." Following his recent personal financial disclosure, it said that he has engaged only periodically in logging since his election to the Maine House of Representatives in 2002.
"He's a logger and union member who understands what it means to worry about making ends meet—and he would bring that experience to a Senate dominated by millionaires," a Jackson campaign spokesperson told Newsweek in early October.
But, in the ad, approved by Collins and funded by the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), Green said Jackson's background had left him ill-equipped for Congress and that the incumbent Republican "delivers for Maine."
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Green, a well-known figure in Maine, has already appeared in campaign ads for Collins in 2026 and in previous races. In 2020, his involvement was considered by some a critical factor in Collins’s eventual reelection, despite her trailing in the polls before Election Day.
"Senator Collins, I think you are a little out of touch," Jackson wrote on X following the latest spot. "This is about a cord of wood—and about Mainers struggling to afford to heat their homes this winter. I know what it’s like to run out of fuel. I’ve lived that struggle. That’s the experience I’ll take to the U.S. Senate. And I’ll use it to fight for working people."
"I do know what I’m talking about. I’ve certainly ran out of fuel before," he said in an accompanying video. "I’ve watched people across the state struggle for years and now because of Senator Collins and voting for the Iran war five times. It’s harder than ever."
How Mainers Reacted
As well as Jackson and the Maine Democratic Party, the ad has faced backlash from Mainers online as well as groups and political figures in the state.
The activist Jess Craven called it a "slap in the face to working Americans." She said—in response to the idea that Jackson "doesn't have the tools he needs to be effective"—that the Democrat spent over two decades in Maine’s state legislature, including a six-year stint as its Senate president.
Sam Patten, a former staffer for Collins, wrote on Facebook that he "didn’t believe this ad was real" until after calling news stations across Maine.
"For more than 30 years, Susan Collins has carefully concealed her intrinsic arrogance because she is very smart and knows well that in Maine politics that would be fatal," the post continued. "With this ad, she gave that act up."
"The race is over," Patten added.
The Maine AFL-CIO—an umbrella organization for labor unions and workers in the state—likewise criticized the ad as elitist and belittling to many Mainers.
"Susan Collins has spent so much time in Washington she thinks working-class Mainers are beneath her," it wrote on X. "We don’t need anymore millionaires in Congress."
Susan Collins Campaign Attack Ads Controversies
The tastefulness of attack ads had already emerged as a major issue in the Maine Senate race prior to the latest spot.
Jackson has repeatedly called the five-term senator "corrupt" and accused her of profiting from her political office. Collins has made mention of reports that Jackson’s partner, Lana Pelletier, is his cousin.
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In a recent article for the Bangor Daily News, Pelletier wrote that she "never imagined U.S. Sen. Susan Collins and her allies would stoop this low."
Collins has distanced herself from certain ads attacking Jackson, however. This includes one that calls the former Maine Senate president a "creep" and which she said should be pulled from the airwaves.
The tracking firm AdImpact found that Republicans continue to outspend in the Maine Senate race. On Tuesday, the firm said the party had spent $116.7 million on aired ads and $7.9 million on future reservations, compared with $86 million and $5.8 million, respectively, for Democrats.
Collins vs. Jackson: What Latest Polls Say
Early voting has already begun, with 220,814 mail-in ballots returned in Maine as of Tuesday evening, according to the University of Florida’s Election Lab.
And polls continue to show a tight race between the pair, though Jackson has led in the majority since entering the contest in late July.
An Echelon Insights survey of 413 Maine likely voters between October 16 and October 23 gave Jackson a 7-point edge over Collins—51 percent to 44 percent—that was just outside its 6.3 percent margin of error. And a Marist University poll, conducted among 1,449 likely voters from October 22 to October 25 and also released on Tuesday, had Jackson at 49 percent and Collins at 47 percent.
Jackson continues to boast a healthier lead on prediction markets. As of Wednesday morning, Polymarket had Jackson's odds at 64 percent, up from 60 percent a month ago.
Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Daniel Orton and James Debens
Register for our November 10 discussion, 'Newsweek Webinar: How the Politics of AI Could Shape Midterms,' which will examine how AI policy played in key races, data centers, lobbying and the political lines that emerged.
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