Unlike Sen. Olympia Snowe, Maine’s junior senator did not face a re-election this past November. Sen. Susan Collins, first elected to the senate in 1996, has two more years in her current term, a fact reflected in her fund-raising totals this election cycle.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Collins raised $136,117 during the 1999-2000 election cycle. Of that amount, $96,854 came from individual contributors and $28,470 from political action committees. The balance, $10,793, came from other revenues collected by the campaign, which could include interest from the campaign’s bank accounts and loans from outside sources.
Collins’ largest campaign contributor during the 1995-2000 senate election cycle was MBNA America Bank. FEC totals show $66,804 donated to her campaign from the country’s largest credit card issuer. Collins was among the majority of senators who voted 83-15 last week for reform legislation that would make it harder for people to declare bankruptcy to avoid paying credit card debts.
The Center for Responsive Politics tabulates contributions by 13 broad sectors. Ten of these sectors fall within the business community, one for labor, one for ideological-single-issue groups. In this broad classification, the overwhelming majority of Collins’ contributions, $284,030, came from finance, real estate and insurance professionals or employees. The more detailed snapshot by the publication Industry shows she raised $134,495 from retired people or their political action committees, $91,243 from the insurance industry, and $74,451 from the forestry products industry. Close behind were health professionals, the finance-credit card industry, and the so-called “leadership” PACs, a group of fund-raising committees led by leading senators.
Collins sits on the Senate Special Committee on Aging; the Armed Services Committee; the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and the Governmental Affairs Committee. She faces re-election in November 2002.
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