Gov. Janet Mills joined high-powered Democratic lobbyists at a campaign meet-and-greet event in Washington a day before she reversed herself to attend a White House meeting.
The U.S. Senate candidate scheduled her Thursday campaign event around an official trip to Washington for the winter meeting of the National Governors Association, which kicked off that day and was highlighted by a politically delicate White House breakfast with President Donald Trump on Friday.
A sharp exchange between Mills and the Republican president at last year’s event put the 78-year-old governor on course to take on U.S. Sen. Susan Collins. It is one of the biggest races on this year’s electoral map, with Democrats effectively needing to oust Maine’s five-term Republican to have a chance of taking back the Senate.
All of the top candidates — Collins, Mills and progressive Democratic primary candidate Graham Platner — have held high-dollar fundraisers during their campaigns. Mills’ Thursday event was a more casual “meet and greet” that required no donation but asked for one, according to an invitation obtained by the Bangor Daily News.
It was notable for the hosts, who were 10 lobbyists including higher-ups at BGR Group, a powerful Washington firm with deep ties to Democrats and Republicans. A Mills spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on the event.
The firm reported $71.5 million in lobbying payments last year, which was a 58% increase over the preceding year, according to OpenSecrets. It has gotten attention for representing foreign governments including those of India, Somalia and Qatar. The firm also has a large swath of clients in the banking and tech industries.
For example, one of the hosts of the Mills event was Jonathan Mantz, who leads the firm’s outreach to Democrats and was a top party fundraiser. Another was Andy Lewin, who is the firm’s main conduit between the financial services sector and moderate Democrats and whose clients include BlackRock and MasterCard.
BGR was named in a letter this week from U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, that criticized lobbying firms with ties to President Donald Trump’s administration. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy worked for the firm before assuming his post, and Warren’s letter noted that the firm has enrolled more transportation clients since the Trump transition.
This was an example of Mills’ status as Washington Democrats’ preferred candidate to take on Collins this November. But Platner has come from nowhere to outraise both Collins and the governor in the last quarter of last year, throwing the nominating race up in the air.
Platner has some support in the capital, where he attended a lobbyist-studded fundraiser in December with help from Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-New Mexico. Collins is getting elite support in the form of a Hollywood fundraiser in October and political committees that have organized to spend heavily on her behalf this year.