A Republican super PAC spent nearly $25,000 slamming ads into the wrong Portland, Oregon, not Maine, in a botched push to help Sen. Susan Collins, then scrambled to fix it.
Defending Main Street SuperPAC Inc., tied to the Republican Main Street Partnership, paid for ads meant to hit Maine voters and boost Collins’ reelection bid. The ads instead ran in Portland, Oregon, far from the Maine race the group was trying to shape.
NBC News reported the mix-up landed on ad buyer Cross Screen Media, which placed the buy in the wrong state. The spots targeted Maine Democratic Senate nominee Troy Jackson and branded him “taxin’ Troy Jackson.” Oregon voters got the message by accident.
Sarah Chamberlain, president and CEO of the Republican Main Street Partnership, did not soft-pedal her reaction. She said she was “absolutely furious” once the group learned what happened.
Chamberlain put the blame squarely on the vendor:
"The buyers made a mistake on one of the placements,"
She added that the Oregon run was never the plan and that the group moved fast after the error surfaced.
"It’s down now and they’re running it in Portland, Maine. It has nothing to do with us. I would never run an ad in Portland, Oregon, for Susan Collins, for Christ’s sake."
Cross Screen Media pulled the Oregon ads and refunded the nearly $25,000 to the PAC. The same message is now running where it was supposed to run, Portland, Maine, against Jackson.
Defending Main Street SuperPAC Inc. is associated with the Republican Main Street Partnership and was working to support Collins, the incumbent Republican senator from Maine. Jackson is the Democratic nominee challenging her. The ad’s attack line was built for Maine politics, not Oregon’s.
No public date was attached to the mistaken buy, the pull, or the refund. What is clear is the sequence: wrong market, discovery, takedown, refund, and a corrected run in Maine.
Senate campaigns lean hard on outside groups and digital buyers to stretch limited dollars. A single bad placement can dump real money into a market that cannot cast a single vote in the race at hand. Here, nearly $25,000 meant for Maine voters briefly hit Oregon screens instead.
Chamberlain’s account leaves little room for spin. The partnership did not order Oregon. The buyer erred. The PAC got its money back. The ads are now in Maine, still aimed at Jackson under the “taxin’ Troy Jackson” line.
Collins remains the incumbent the group set out to help. The episode is a vendor failure, not a change in strategy. Main Street Republicans wanted Maine voters. For a stretch, they paid for Oregon ones by mistake.
In tight Senate fights, every dollar is supposed to land on the right map. This one did not, until the refund and the fix.
