Candidates say distortions, attacks have no place in race
By The Associated Press BDN Staff
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Maine’s U.S. Senate candidates, Tom Allen and Susan Collins, are sparring over a new series of campaign ads aired by a third party.
Collins, a Republican who is seeking her third term, called on Allen on Sunday to denounce the TV ads being aired by VoteVets.Org. The ads take Collins to task for votes on the Iraq war, but Collins says they attempt to distort her record.
“This is the latest in a series of ads, which are paid for by out-of-state, special interest political groups, to attack Senator Collins since 2007. These same groups have already spent more than $1 million on attack ads against Senator Collins,” the campaign said in a statement.
Allen, Maine’s 1st District Democratic congressman, said in a statement through his campaign spokeswoman that he has been the target of weeks of false and negative attacks by Collins’ allies, and agrees that distortions “have no place in the race.”
“Congressman Allen stands by his call to third parties to keep TV and radio ads positive,” says the statement by campaign spokeswoman Carol Andrews.
But it said the differences between Collins and Allen on the Iraq war are clear, with Allen calling for a deadline for withdrawal from Iraq and Collins supporting “an open-ended commitment.”
Allen has been targeted in a series of ads that harshly criticize his support for the Employee Free Choice Act, also known as the “card-check” bill, which would allow workers to unionize when they get a majority of workers to sign cards favoring a union.
In one ad, an actor who portrayed a mob leader in HBO’s “The Sopranos” pressures a worker to sign a union recognition card. Both Allen’s and Collins’ campaigns condemned the ads, which are also financed by outside political groups.
TV spots defending the card check bill have since appeared.
On 9/2/08 at 9:33 AM,
pjramsay wrote:
Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden
Sisn't Susan Collins tell the voters that she would only serve two terms?
On 9/2/08 at 9:40 AM,
RevGerald wrote:
Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden
The simple question is .......have Collins and Allen consistently voted for funding for the murder of the Iraqi people or not.
On 9/2/08 at 4:16 PM,
Harrry wrote:
Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden
Did Susan say she would only serve two terms, yes. Did Biden say that he was not seeking the VP slot, and would not take it if offered, yes. But, we Americans should by now know that they (our elected leaders) will say or do anything that suits the purpose. They would not understand truth if they fell o\ver it. But having said that, it still our 'we the peoples' problem, for we allow them to stay in office, and do nothing about the mass corruption. Sheep do that very well.
On 9/2/08 at 6:16 PM,
eastman wrote:
Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden
Well said Harry, Yes we the people are a herd of sheep and our so called leaders are the heard dogs. Isnt it time to change that??November is almost here..
On 9/3/08 at 8:38 AM,
MrNixxon wrote:
Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden
Rev G, Iraq is no more murder than it was where Mr Clinton sent the military during his term. No problems with the liberals then. And politicians lie. Full stop. End of story. We keep voting them in because there are no other choices. Put a final box on the ballot; "None of the above". Have them start over with other people. I know--it would never work.
Post a comment about this story
You must be logged in to post a comment.
click here to log in.
