Senator Collins Owed Maine More Than Silence

As a lifelong Mainer, I am tired of being told that years in office, or "experience," can replace true accountability.

Senator Susan Collins has been in Washington for nearly three decades, despite her well-known promise to serve only two terms. She has built a national reputation around terms like "moderate," "independent," "bipartisan," and "thoughtful." These labels helped her survive politically in a state that values independence and honesty in public service. We need to evaluate elected officials based on their actions instead of their polished images, especially when these images serve national interests more than local needs.

Senator Collins is not accountable to the people of Maine. She has not held an open town hall meeting for her constituents since 1997. Maine is not California or Texas. It’s not a vast state where a senator might claim that public meetings are impossible. Maine is small, with a focus on local gatherings, select boards, and community events. It operates on face-to-face politics. Looking your constituents in the eye in Maine is not just possible; it is expected. That does not mean every meeting will be pleasant. Nor does it mean every question will be fair or polite. Susan Collins has built her career on carefully managed press releases, but real political representation is often messy and uncomfortable. It requires public officials to answer questions from people who disagree with them, including those who may feel angry, scared, or ignored. A senator who takes part in carefully managed events but avoids meeting constituents at town halls is not being accountable. Real representation is about access. It means showing up when the people who pay your salary want to ask questions. A senator from Maine avoiding town halls for thirty years is significant. It undermines the civic culture of this state.

The lack of accountability is even more concerning when paired with questionable financial ethics. To be clear, I have no direct knowledge of Senator Collins being convicted of or even investigated for insider trading. I am not suggesting that every profitable investment related to her household was illegal. However, we should be able to raise concerns when something seems off. Senator Collins may deserve the presumption of innocence under the law, but she does not have the same presumption in the court of public trust.

Senator Collins is currently the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee; the committee that controls discretionary federal spending. This means it decides where large amounts of federal money go. Defense, healthcare, infrastructure, and many other sectors depend on appropriation decisions. When that level of power and knowledge combines with a household portfolio invested in individual companies affected by federal spending, the conflict is clear. Even if each trade is technically legal, the arrangement raises concerns. Legality does not equal integrity.

Senator Collin’s stock portfolio was up 55% in 2023 compared to the S&P 500 at 24%. In 2024 she gained 71% compared to 25% for the S&P. She came into public service with a net worth a little over $100,000 and since has parleyed that into millions of dollars of stock holdings. No ordinary Mainer has access to the information, relationships, or briefings available to a U.S. senator. No retiree in Bangor, lobsterman in Stonington, or small business owner in Hancock County gets to be part of the federal decision-making process and trade before the public sees the final outcomes. Members of Congress know what is under discussion before it becomes news, and they are aware of which industries are lobbying hard. They know which amendments are likely to pass. They know which agencies are under pressure. Most importantly, they know which sectors and companies are about to gain attention, scrutiny, or funding. That access is incredibly valuable, even if it cannot be legally termed "inside information." This is why members of Congress and their spouses should not trade individual stocks at all. They should be limited to broad mutual funds, index funds, Treasury securities, or real blind trusts. This should not be a controversial point; it should be the minimum standard required to maintain public trust. Susan Collins should know this and should be able to act ethically, regardless of the legality of her trades. Many things are legal because Congress sets the rules for itself. This is problematic because when those benefiting from loose ethics rules are the same individuals responsible for tightening those rules, the public has good reasons to distrust the system. Even with the current ethics guidelines, the STOCK Act was designed to create transparency around congressional financial activity. It was meant to allow the public to see when members of Congress or their households buy and sell financial assets. Senator Collins supported that law but missed the required disclosure deadline for her husband’s purchase of Pfizer corporate bonds valued at up to $50,000. Other reports have raised questions about additional lapses including 24 transactions worth up to $395,000 filed more than 100 days past the 45-day mandatory deadline. Can Maine citizens trust a senator to supervise herself when she will not even meet the transparency deadlines of a law she backed? Financial disclosure is not just paperwork; it is the public's view into potential conflicts of interest.

I do not expect my senator to be poor, nor do I expect her spouse to lack a career. I do expect ethical behavior, regardless of how ethics rules are defined. I expect transparency and public access. I expect a senator to realize that trust is not guaranteed simply because she has held office for over three decades. Trust must be maintained, and when damaged, it must be rebuilt. Maine deserves better than managed appearances and carefully crafted statements. We deserve more than insincere claims about bipartisanship and strategic votes against her party just to appear independent. The people of Maine are smarter than that, and we deserve a senator who will act ethically and engage with us directly. Maine has a long memory, but it should not have limitless patience.

It is time for Susan Collins to go.