from the Senate floor last night:

more stimulus news from the Collins Newswire >>

The Collins campaign is announcing Shipbuilders for Collins, a coalition of over 150 BIW workers.

Here's the press release:

PORTLAND, Maine — In recognition of her unwavering commitment to the men and women who work at Bath Iron Works, today a coalition of shipbuilders pledged their support for Susan Collins for re-election to the United States Senate.

The Kennebec Journal endorsed Senator Collins for reelection today:

As Washington Post political reporter Shailagh Murray writes, if the Senate Democrats have 57 or 58 votes post-election, "the most powerful people in the Senate will be a handful of Republicans like Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, along with Joe Lieberman."

The Press Herald is reporting on a new poll by Maine Democratic pollster Patrick Murphy's Pan Atlantic/SMS:
Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins holds a 21 percentage point lead over her Democratic challenger, U.S. Rep. Tom Allen, in a poll released today by a Portland market research firm.

The poll by Pan Atlantic SMS Group found that Collins had 57 percent of the vote, Allen had 36 percent and 7 percent were undecided.

http://news.mainetoday.com/updates/034562.html

Peter Chandler, chair of the Maine Democrats' Victory Campaign, is sending out emails that are putting a creative spin on Tom Allen's role in the Fannie Mae/ Freddie Mac fiasco.

In typical Maine Democratic Party style, Chandler is playing a shell game: he's calling Susan Collins a liar based on a statement he made up. Chandler and the Allen campaign are claiming Senator Collins criticized Allen for a vote against a bill - HR 1461. Clever attempt, but Chandler is not telling the truth. Collins has, instead, been critical of Allen's attempts to block amendments to the bill.

A SurveyUSA/WCSH6 poll is showing Senator Collins continuing to dominate Tom Allen. She leads 55-39, and holds a 14 point lead in Tom Allen's own district.

Here's the story:
http://www.wcsh6.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=93318&catid=2

I'm on board the Collins for Senator campaign bus today, blogging and editing video as Senator Collins visits fire stations and police departments across Southern Maine. We're being escorted by a group of 25 or so firemen on motorcycles, wearing yellow 'Firefighters for Collins' shirts. It's an amazing scene as this bus and all of these bikes roll through these small towns, and the response we're receiving is unbelievable.

Celebrated leftwing blogger Matt Stoller had this to say about Maine Congressman Tom Allen:

I didn't like Tom Allen when he went after bloggers in 2005. He's part of that wanker class. I hope he defeats Susan Collins and would vote for him if given the opportunity, but I can see why Maine voters wouldn't want to put him in the Senate.

Yikes.

Tom Allen's campaign has taken a ton of money from MoveOn.org and their various affiliates. Last year they dumped over $1 million in ridiculous attack ads in Maine. Now they're back, this time under the name VoteVets.org, and they've launched an attack ad that is not only factually incorrect, but poorly produced.