Susan Collins ads meant for Portland, Maine run in Portland, Oregon
A Republican group paid for a television ad to help Senator Susan Collins in Maine. The agency that places its ads put it on air in Portland, Oregon, about 3,000 miles away, and has refunded the money.
14 October 2026
Photo: Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images, via NBC News
The ad is called “So Many Taxes”. It was paid for by Defending Main Street, a Republican super PAC, and it attacks Troy Jackson, the Democrat running against Collins for the Senate in Maine this November, over his record on taxes, NBC News reported on Monday.
It ran in and around Portland, Oregon.
“I’ve gotten 5 anti-Troy Jackson ads in the last 24 hours,” one Oregon viewer wrote online. “I choose to believe they mixed up Portlands.”
They had. Cross Screen Media, the firm that buys airtime for the PAC, told NBC the mistake was “100 percent” theirs, and said it handles thousands of political campaigns. As much as $25,000 was spent on the Oregon run. The money has been refunded.
Sarah Chamberlain, who runs the Republican Main Street Partnership, the group behind the PAC, called the mistake “ridiculous” and said the ad came off the air as soon as it was found.
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