Allen, Collins trade barbs as campaign heats up

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Though the general election is eight months away, the two main contenders in Maine’s U.S. Senate race are not waiting until the weather warms up to start criticizing each other.

The campaigns of Sen. Susan Collins and U.S. Rep. Tom Allen are confronting each other on their records, their campaign donors and even the criticism each has leveled against the other.

Collins is criticizing Allen’s ties to MoveOn.org and his voting record, while Allen is criticizing Collins’ criticism on that topic and her record in the Senate. Allen recently enlisted New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg, who has endorsed his fellow Democrat, to accuse Collins of protecting Iraq war contractor Halliburton when she chaired the Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Collins should have held hearings on governmental waste in the war effort and in particular about Halliburton’s contracts but instead chose not to, Allen and Lautenberg have said.

“There is simply no excuse for allowing Halliburton and other contractors to rip off taxpayers while failing to serve our troops,” Allen recently said in a statement.

For Collins, however, Allen should be held accountable for one of his sources of campaign funding. In a video posted on the Internet, the Collins campaign criticizes the liberal political action committee MoveOn and takes aim at the amount of money it has given Allen. The video accuses MoveOn of “nasty politics,” including an advertisement it placed in The New York Times criticizing Gen. David Petraeus. It also indicates that Allen has received more than $365,000 from MoveOn.

“In 2008, Maine will be a key battleground in the stand against MoveOn.org and their extreme allies,” the video indicates. It then shows still photos of financier George Soros and separate pictures of protesters with fake blood, others carrying a sign that says “we support our troops when they shoot their officers,” and some burning the American flag.

“Help Susan Collins stand up to MoveOn.org and the far left money machine,” the video continues.

The video can be viewed at www.standuptomoveon.org.

According to Steve Abbott, Collins’ campaign manager, the video is a fundraising tool aimed at serving as a counterpoint to MoveOn’s contributions to Allen’s campaign. He said MoveOn is an “extreme” and “partisan” group, and it is fair to point out that MoveOn has contributed more money to Allen than to any other candidate, including Democratic presidential hopefuls Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Collins’ campaign has indicated that MoveOn and other allied groups are behind nine attack ads against Collins, including one that described her as “toothless” and had a doctored photo of the senator with all but one of her teeth blacked out.

“Politically, [MoveOn’s tactics] don’t fit the common sense values shared by the voters of Maine,” Abbott said Tuesday. “[The video] is our attempt to defend ourselves.”

But according to Carol Andrews, communications director for Allen’s campaign, the video represents the tactics of Karl Rove, President Bush’s former political adviser.

Mainers deserve a political dialogue on the issues, Andrews said Monday, and not on personal attacks.

Most people who share Allen’s desire to end the war are not part of the “fringe” protesters depicted in the video, according to Andrews. She said the congressman does not support the protests seen in the video.

“I don’t know who these people are,” Andrews said of the filmed protesters. “There’s too much at stake to spend [time] on the politics of destruction.”

Andrews said MoveOn serves as a conduit for donors, many of them opposed to the war in Iraq, who are on its e-mail list and who want to give money to his campaign. Most of the campaign contributions were for $25 while the average amount was for $40, she said.

“Several thousand people on these e-mail lists chose to give to Tom,” Andrews said.

She also criticized Collins’ decision not to hold hearings on Halliburton when she chaired the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

“She denied those hearings,” Andrews said. “We were bilked for billions of dollars. You’re talking about taxpayer dollars being wasted and troops not being served.”

The Collins campaign has said that, rather than convene a “politically motivated hearing on Halliburton,” the committee did a lot of important work during the three years she chaired it, including looking into the general issue of government contracting in Iraq.

Collins’ aides and campaign staffers have indicated that under Collins’ leadership the committee oversaw the merger of 22 federal agencies into the Department of Homeland Security, drafted legislation that implemented intelligence reform recommended by the bipartisan Sept. 11 Commission, and investigated the “failed response” to Hurricane Katrina, among other things. And, they have said, when it came time for the House to consider a government contracting reform bill, Allen missed the vote.

Andrews confirmed Tuesday that Allen did miss the March 2007 vote, but said he had a good excuse. The bill passed by about 275 votes, she said, which Allen anticipated, and when it was held he was in a classified briefing on Army readiness.

Allen has participated in about 98 percent of the votes in the House, even though the House votes between two and three times more often than the Senate does, Andrews said.

“We’re proud of our record,” she said.

Collins and Allen each have indicated they individually have introduced legislation designed to hold government contractors more accountable for the money they spend and the services they provide.

“Federal contract purchases now exceed $400 billion a year, and the amount of waste that has been uncovered through our committee’s investigations is alarming,” Collins recently indicated in a statement. “Our investigations into Iraq contracting and contracts related to Hurricane Katrina, for example, highlighted the need for major contracting reform to bring more competition, accountability, and transparency to the process.”

btrotter@bangordailynews.net

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