Senate Republicans are taking aim at the legislative record of Maine Democratic Senate nominee Troy Jackson in a new PAC advertisement.
The Senate Leadership Fund, the campaign arm political action committee aligned with Senate Republicans, launched a video ad hitting Jackson on his voting record while serving in Maine’s state Senate, saying he raised taxes on everyday Mainers while cutting taxes for the state’s wealthiest citizens. The ad comes as Jackson has made affordability and sticking up for the working class central pillars of his Senate campaign.
“Troy Jackson cut tax rates for the rich and raised taxes on working-class Mainers,” the 30-second SLF ad says. “Jackson tried to force thousands of Maine families to pay higher sales taxes, but he cut taxes for the 1%. Tax cuts for his rich donors, and tax hikes for the rest of us. Jackson voted for higher sales taxes, higher property taxes, even higher income taxes because Troy Jackson raises taxes on everyday Mainers.”
A Jackson campaign spokesperson told the Washington Examiner that the ad is “false” and pointed to his support for bills in the state legislature that would have raised taxes on high-income earners, while lowering or steadying rates for the rest of Maine.
“This ad is false, and Mainers aren’t buying it,” the Jackson campaign spokesperson said. “Troy Jackson has spent his career fighting for working people and to lower costs. Susan Collins, on the other hand, voted to give more than $1 trillion in tax cuts for big corporations as they bankroll her campaign because they know she’ll always put them first, not Mainers.”
Jackson, who is challenging five-term incumbent Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), is running on affordability-focused priorities such as taxing billionaires while cutting taxes for the working class, lowering prescription drug costs, and passing “Medicare for all.” He has hit Collins throughout the campaign as out-of-touch with everyday Mainers, saying to Collins on Labor Day: “You can’t vote with Donald Trump and his billionaire buddies 96% of the time, then show up every six years and pretend you give a damn about working families.”
But SLF PAC’s ad released Friday cuts at the basis of Jackson’s tax priorities, pointing to votes he took while working in the state legislature that repealed local limits on property taxes, added a 10% sales tax increase, and a 14.3% increase in Maine’s meals and lodging tax. The latter was added through an appropriations bill that Jackson, at the time, said he voted on to avert a government shutdown.
The spokesperson told the Washington Examiner that the tax hikes as part of that 2013 appropriations bill were temporary.
“Troy understands that right now working Mainers are being crushed by a rigged system and paying too much of the tax burden,” a Jackson spokesperson told the Washington Examiner in August. “While Susan Collins helps corporations and the ultra-wealthy skirt paying their fair share, as he’s done in the State Senate, Troy will keep working to cut taxes so that Maine families can keep more of what they earn.”
TROY JACKSON, NOW PUSHING AFFORDABILITY MESSAGE, VOTED TO RAISE TAXES IN MAINE
Jackson replaced embattled Democratic nominee Graham Platner on the Senate ballot in late July after Platner dropped out following sexual abuse allegations.
Election forecasters have listed the race as a toss-up, with Jackson leading by single-digit margins in recent polls.