Platner, Collins release first ads since Mills’s exit from Maine Senate race

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Democratic challenger Graham Platner are out with dueling campaign ads this week after Gov. Janet Mills’s exit (D) shook up the U.S. Senate race in Maine.

The Collins ad, released on Tuesday, features the executive director of the Eastport Port Authority, Chris Gardner, praising the senator for her response when a breakwater collapsed overnight in December 2014.

There were no serious injuries, but Gardner said the situation disrupted the state’s economy and brought uncertainty to the future of the deepest natural seaport in the continental United States.

“But prior to sunrise, we received a phone call from Sen. Susan Collins, who assured us that she would be there to help see it rebuilt,” Gardner says in the minute-long spot. “Just having that assurance meant so much to this community.”

Collins had helped secure a $6 million federal grant to renovate the breakwater in 2013, but it failed to come to fruition before the collapse halted construction. The breakwater eventually underwent a $15 million overhaul starting in 2017, using a combination of state, federal and city funds to rebuild the structure with less corrosion-prone composite materials.

“The breakwater has long been a part of........

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