Wrong Portland: A Pro-Collins Super PAC Blew $25,000 Attacking Troy Jackson in Oregon

Wrong Portland: A Pro-Collins PAC Blew $25,000 Attacking Troy Jackson in Oregon

$25,000 in Anti-Jackson Ads Landed in Oregon, Not Maine

Between Oct. 8 and Oct. 11, the Republican super PAC Defending Main Street bought roughly $25,000 in digital placements for a 30-second spot and ran it across hundreds of ZIP codes in the Portland, Oregon media market — plus parts of southwestern Washington, according to Google's Ads Transparency Center. The buy delivered more than 1 million impressions in Oregon and over 300,000 more in Washington state. The intended audience was Portland, Maine, about 2,500 miles away and three time zones east.

The Spot Attacks Jackson on Taxes but Never Names Collins

Titled "So Many Taxes," the ad never mentions Senator Susan Collins. Instead, a narrator intones, "It's tough to make a living when you pay so much in taxes. And taxin' Troy Jackson made it that way." Jackson, the Democratic nominee and a 58-year-old fifth-generation logger who once served as president of the Maine Senate, has said he backs increases only on wealthy individuals and large corporations. The tax line is the same one Collins has used throughout her bid for a sixth term.

An Oregon Resident's Post Set Off the Discovery

The blunder surfaced not through FEC filings but through a bored internet user. On Sunday, Oregon resident Lillian Belle wrote on X: "I've gotten 5 anti-Troy Jackson ads in the last 24 hours. I choose to believe they mixed up Portlands." By Monday morning, more users reported the same spots, and by that afternoon the Google listing had been corrected to show Maine ZIP codes.

The PAC Blamed Its Media Vendor — and Said It Was Reimbursed

A spokesperson for the Republican Main Street Partnership, the nonprofit affiliated with Defending Main Street, told The Hill and Newsweek that "our media vendor mistakenly placed approximately $25,000 in digital advertising in the Portland, Oregon media market instead of Portland, Maine." The error, the statement said, "was identified, the ads were immediately stopped and corrected, and the vendor is refunding Defending Main Street the full amount of the misplaced spend. No donor funds will be lost."

The Ad Buyer Called It '100% Our Mistake'

The ad buyer called it "100% our mistake" and the parent company agreed: the 1903 Group, which owns Cross Screen Media, confirmed the full refund of $25,909.61 to the super PAC while restarting the campaign in Portland, Maine.

Chamberlain: 'I Would Never Run an Ad in Portland, Oregon'

Sarah Chamberlain, president and CEO of the Republican Main Street Partnership, told NBC News she was "absolutely furious" about the "ridiculous" error. "The buyers made a mistake on one of the placements. It's down now, and they're running it in Portland, Maine," she said. "It has nothing to do with us. I would never run an ad in Portland, Oregon, for Susan Collins, for Christ's sake."

Jackson's Team Pounced: 'They Can't Even Find It on a Map'

Jackson spokesman Dan Gottlieb turned the mistake into a campaign line: "Susan Collins and her allies are so out of touch with Maine, they can't even find it on a map. Good luck convincing Mainers you know what's best for them when you don't know which Portland they live in." Andy O'Brien, a Maine operative who supports Jackson, told The Intercept that outside billionaires are "spending millions of dollars to buy Susan Collins the election, so it's pretty hilarious to see them throwing money at the wrong Portland."

Same-Name Cities and ZIP-Code Targeting Did It

Every account points to the same mechanical failure: a buy keyed to the name "Portland" locked onto the Oregon market rather than the Maine one, running for four days before anyone noticed. The creative itself never named Collins, which made the wasted spend less a policy problem than a competence story — an outside group so unfamiliar with Maine it could not pick the right Portland.

Maine Still Got the Ad: 675,000 Impressions

The misfire did not spare Maine from the attack. The same ad aired on broadcast television in the intended Portland, Maine market, logging roughly 675,000 impressions over the same four days, according to AdImpact data cited by MS NOW. So the blunder cost Republicans money and credibility in Oregon while the air war in Maine proceeded untouched.

A Refund Can't Fix a Tight Race Heading Into Nov. 3

With the money returned, the episode's financial damage is close to zero, but the politics are unforgiving. A Washington Post-Schar School poll of 800 likely voters taken Sept. 30 to Oct. 5 showed Jackson leading Collins 50% to 46%, within the sampling error; a Marist Poll of 1,505 registered voters from Oct. 1 to Oct. 4 had it 51% to 47% with a 3.8-point margin. Collins, 73, is seeking a sixth term in a race that featured its first of four debates on Oct. 6. With voting on Nov. 3, the airwaves — in the correct Portland — will keep filling up.