Ads target Snowe and Collins on extenders

Maine’s two centrist GOP senators found themselves under pressure on Monday to break with their party and support a stalled extenders bill in the Senate.

The liberal group Americans United for Change (AUfC) and the labor group the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) teamed up to spend on a series of ads this week in Maine, urging Sens. Olympie Snowe (R) and Susan Collins (R) to support legislation that would extend unemployment benefits, along with other support to states.

Democrats have sought repeatedly to pass that legislation in the Senate, failing again as recently as Thursday, when they fell four votes short of the 60 votes needed to end a filibuster. But even if Collins and Snowe were to switch, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) would need to convince two Democrats — Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Sen. Joe Lieberman (Conn.), an Independent who caucuses with the party — to also switch their votes.

Republicans have been demanding that the new spending be paid for within the budget, but offsetting spending elsewhere. The GOP has proposed taking unspent stimulus funds to pay for the extenders.

But as Reid attempts again to move forward with the package this week, AUfC and AFSCME are pouring $75,000 into the Bangor and Portland markets in Maine to pressure Snowe and Collins.

“If Sens. Snowe and Collins are truly concerned about the deficit, then they need to vote for this jobs bill — especially as unemployment hovers near 10 percent and 900,000 more workers face the threat of layoffs,” AFSCME President Gerald McEntee said.

The ad specifically asks the senators to pass the bill for the sake of children, who, the ad says, even understand that creating jobs is more important than trimming the deficit right now.

View the ad below: