Sara Gideon’s Legacy: 100 Days of Inaction During Candidate-Defining Crisis

During Maine’s Dark Hour, #SaraDidNothing

In Contrast, Senator Collins Stepped Up And Delivered Avalanche of Aid

Members of the press,

Today marks 100 days since Speaker Sara Gideon adjourned the Maine Legislature at the start of a health and economic crisis. During the last 100 days, many thousands of Mainers have needed immediate, serious assistance, and Speaker Gideon has done nothing to help. But Susan Collins has.

Sara Gideon’s legacy has been set by her behavior during the last 100 days. The stories of Mainers struggling do not appear to have moved her to action at all - in fact, it appears as if the State Legislature won’t return until AUGUST. Gideon could call the House back in session tomorrow if she wanted to lend a hand.

In stark contrast, Senator Collins has stepped up to the plate and delivered a stunning amount of aid to Mainers in need.

Let’s look at the very real impact of Speaker Gideon’s decision to keep the Legislature away from helping with COVID aid. Each of these bullet points represents thousands upon thousands of Mainers in need.

"Maine's economic fallout from coronavirus could be nation's worst"

Gideon stood aside as the state’s economy collapsed. Thousands of Mainers lost their jobs, businesses closed, and Gideon did nothing.

"Maine lags neighbors in allocating $1B in federal virus aid..."

Gideon did nothing and failed to distribute more than $1 billion in federal aid to Maine’s cities and towns. Senator Collins delivered $1.25 billion in state and local aid to Maine in May, but that money is just starting to be disbursed. The vital aid could have been distributed much sooner had the Legislature acted. Governor Mills even requested Gideon’s assistance in a letter on May 29th, but Gideon did nothing.

"Unemployment claims in Maine surpass 100,000 since pandemic began"

Gideon did nothing to help with the unemployment crisis. Thousands of Mainers are still waiting for a broken state unemployment system to be fixed, and Gideon hasn’t shown any interest in their plight. It’s also important to remember how much worse the unemployment crisis would have been without the Paycheck Protection Program, authored by Senator Collins. [The same program that Sara Gideon attacked in a campaign ad that the Washington Post’s independent Fact Checker rated MOSTLY FALSE.]

In contrast, Senator Collins put forth an immense, effective, immediate effort to deliver aid to Maine.

Senator Collins wrote the bipartisan Paycheck Protection Program, which has supported more than 200,000 Maine jobs and delivered well more than $2 billion to support about 75-percent of small employers in Maine.
Senator Collins also delivered tens of millions of dollars in aid and protective equipment to hospitals, schools, social services, the fishing industry, the farming industry, Maine’s media, and many others.

And during that time, Collins has been on the job in Washington. She never stopped legislating. In addition to responding to the coronavirus crisis, the Senate recently passed the Great American Outdoors Act which provides $900 million per year for the Land and Water Conservation Fund to help preserve Maine’s beauty for generations to come - an important priority of Senator Collins.

It’s pretty simple - when coronavirus hit Maine,

Senator Collins took effective, aggressive action to benefit her fellow Mainers.

Speaker Gideon did nothing. Not a single thing to help Mainers in need.

#SaraDidNothing