- The Washington Times - Sunday, September 9, 2018

The crowdfunding innovations keep coming.

One campaign, designed to pressure Sen. Susan Collins into voting against confirming Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, has topped more than $800,000 — conditionally.

The campaign is called “Either Sen. Collins VOTES NO on Kavanaugh OR we fund her future opponent” and is being pushed by liberal activists nationwide, including gun control advocate David Hogg.

As the title suggests, the monetary pledges will not be consummated if Ms. Collins, one of two Republican senators (the other being Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska) who’ve said she remains undecided on the Kavanaugh pick, votes not to confirm him. Ms. Collins has said she wants assurances that Judge Kavanaugh sees Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that made abortion a constitutional right, to be settled law. Though Judge Kavanaugh did say that, albeit with caveats, she said after last week’s hearings that she was still undecided.

By Sunday afternoon, the campaign by Maine People’s Alliance and Mainers for Accountable Leadership had raised a hefty amount of seed money, though the race is two years away.

“This is remarkable people power. In a few days, $800k+ has been raised to fund a challenger to @SenatorCollins in 2020 if she votes to confirm Kavanaugh. Incredibly, that’s nearly as much as Collins has in her own campaign account,” said Matt McDermott, a pollster and senior analyst at the Democratic firm Whitman Insight Strategies.


SEE ALSO: Susan Collins mailed 3,000 coat hangers by Brett Kavanaugh foes


According to the campagin’s page at Crowdpac, the money would only go to the Democratic nominee, not to a Republican challenger. Ms. Collins would next be up for re-election in November 2020.

• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.

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