Dear Editor: 

Last week I called Senator Susan Collin’s office in Augusta. I got through to one of her assistants. I asked the assistant if it is true that the Senator proposes to vote in favor of the SAVE act which is currently under discussion in the Senate. The staffer said, “Yes.” 

I pointed out, as a constituent of Susan Collins, that a little over three months ago Mainers voted overwhelmingly against similar measures in Referendum 1.A vote for the SAVE act and similar measures would fly directly in the clearly expressed face of the wishes of Susan Collin’s own constituents. The staffer ended the call without asking for my name, or town, or whether I would like any response from Senator Collins. 

It seems that constituent opinions are no longer of any importance to Senator Collins. This prompted me to do some online research into the last time Senator Collins held an in-person town hall with any of her constituents. Artificial Intelligence (AI) reported it is over 20 years ago. I don’t trust AI and simply could not believe this answer. I did some more checking, and some more checking, and some more checking. And everywhere I got the same answer: over 20 years. 

If true, this is frankly astonishing. Imagine an elected politician who avoids meeting her constituents! And who is willing to vote against the clearly expressed wishes of 64% of those who voted on Referendum 1 last November. And to do this on a measure which, if passed, will disenfranchise an estimated tens of thousands of those voters.  

But that, of course, is the whole point of this Republican effort. To make it harder to vote so thatentrenched politicians like Susan Collins are not accountable to their constituents. President Trump has expressed this multiple times recently, including the statement last week that if the SAVE act is passed Republicans will “never lose a race for 50 years.” 

Let us hope the Democrats and Independents in the Senate hold the line so that we get an opportunity in November to vote for a Senator who will represent Mainers. 

Nigel Calder 

Newcastle