State Democrats ask Collins to denounce McCain/RNC's Ayers ad

By Jessica Alaimo, PolitickerME.com Reporter

UPDATE 2:54 p.m.: Collins will make a formal denouncement of the robocalls. Spokesman Kevin Kelley plans is issuing the following statement: “These kind of tactics have no place in Maine politics. Sen. Collins urges the McCain campaign to stop these calls immediately.”

Original story follows:

RUMFORD -- The Maine Democratic Party is speaking out against robocalls made by Republican Presidential candidate John McCain's campaign and the Republican National Committee criticizing Democratic candidate Barack Obama for his associations with 60's radical activist Bill Ayers.

This afternoon, they called on U.S. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Bangor) to denounce the calls. Party spokeswoman Rebecca Pollard said in a release:

"Susan Collins likes to decry any television ad questioning her votes and positions as automatically 'negative,' so let's see if she will apply the same standard when it comes to blatantly false phone calls personally attacking the Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama.

When asked by PolitickerME.com about this request, Collins said that it was the first time she had heard of these calls.

She said that Mainers don't like negative tactics, quickly relating them to negative ads by both her opponent, U.S. Rep. Tom Allen (D-Portland), and third party groups working against her.

When asked if she would make a formal denouncement or statement against the attacks, she said: "I can't comment on what I haven't heard, but the people of Maine want to hear of John McCain's plans for the country, and not about Bill Ayers," Collins said.

Obama's Maine campaign issued a press release with comments from Mainers who they said received the calls.

"My 9-year-old son heard the message yesterday and frankly, this is not language I would even allow him to hear on TV or in a movie. It was very disturbing to me as a parent that someone who is running for president would allow a phone message to be left on families' answering machines saying such dishonorable, disturbing things," said David Anderson from Buckfield, according to the release.

The script of the calls, according to The Politico, is as follows:

"Hello. I'm calling for John McCain and the RNC because you need to know that Barack Obama has worked closely with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers, whose organization bombed the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon, a judge's home and killed Americans. And Democrats will enact an extreme leftist agenda if they take control of Washington. Barack Obama and his Democratic allies lack the judgment to lead our country. This call was paid for by McCain-Palin 2008 and the Republican National Committee at 202-863-8500."

Jessica Alaimo is a PolitickerME.com Reporter and can be reached via email at noreply@politicker.com.

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