The lead campaign committee for Republican U.S. Senate candidates has deployed mobile billboards in Portland and Freeport depicting Democratic candidate Betsy Sweet as being in the company of far left politicians. The ads are actually intended to help Sweet’s campaign.
The billboards festooned on box trucks are designed to intensify the Democratic primary between Sweet and Maine House Speaker Sara Gideon, both of whom are challenging Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins.
The @NRSC has a new mobile billboard in Maine targeting far-left Senate candidate @BetsySweetME:
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) August 8, 2019
✅Endorsed by @AOC's @justicedems
✅Supportive of outlawing employer-based health insurance
✅Supportive of raising your taxes for lower-quality healthcare.#mepolitics #MEsen pic.twitter.com/tT3Qe5lpIF
Saco lawyer Bre Kidman is also in the Democratic primary but has yet to be targeted
The messages show Sweet alongside liberal firebrands like New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and declare that sweet is too liberal for Maine.
Justice Democrats, a group that backed Ocasio-Cortez's upset primary win last year has endorsed Sweet.
The mobile billboards are paid for by the National Republican Senate Committee (NRSC), which has been stoking the primary fight and attempting to elevate Sweet, who is far behind Gideon in fundraising and lacks the backing of deep-pocketed national interest groups that can spend on her behalf.
The NRSC's choice of locations is no accident. More than half of registered voters in Portland are Democrats and Freeport is Gideon's hometown.
I want to thank the NRSC for linking us to the great @AOC, @BernieSanders and @IlhanMN, all of whom have outstanding records standing up for working class people, immigrants, and the disabled.https://t.co/ucDeZwz7nf
— Betsy Sweet (@BetsySweetME) August 8, 2019
In a tweet, Sweet thanked the NRSC for the publicity.
