Our Senator Susan Collins apparently wishes to be known as a “moderate.” I recently received a campaign fundraising letter signed by her addressed to “Fellow Conservative” which said: “Fellow Conservative, join me in this fight today.”

It also referred to those who oppose her reelection as the “Radical left”. This will come as a big surprise to my Maine Republican friends who say they will vote for her opponent because she has abandoned moderation in her votes for Kavanaugh and other judicial nominees opposed to reproductive and civil rights.

She makes it clear in her fundraising letter that she has abandoned any “return to civility and spirit of compromise driven by concerned citizens” as she called for on her website since she dismisses us concerned citizens as the radical Left. She does not have “respect for [our] differing viewpoints”.

Many of us already knew that Senator Collins had abandoned any claim to the moderate label  when she voted for the tax bill gutting the ACA, confirmed nominees who oppose Federal efforts in environmental, civil rights, voter rights, worker safety, LBGTQ rights and consumer protection.

We just didn’t know when she’d “say the quiet part out loud” (as the younger generation says.) Well, she now has, writing she no longer sees herself as a “moderate” but rather a “conservative” in a fundraising letter.

Maine voters will decide in 2020 whether they wish a “conservative” Susan Collins an alternative to represent them. I know which I prefer.

Susie Crimmins
Portland