民主党主要的参议院超级政治行动委员会正将ProPublica曝光缅因州共和党参议员苏珊·柯林斯的相关调查报道，转化为一场时长30秒、耗资340万美元的攻击性宣传攻势。这场宣传战将在本次中期选举中竞争最为激烈的参议院选区之一展开。
The Democrats' main Senate super PAC is turning an explosive ProPublica investigation into Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) into a 30-second, $3.4 million attack campaign in one of the closest Senate races of the midterms.
为何此事值得关注：参议院多数党超级政治行动委员会斥巨资投放广告，表明民主党认为他们能够将这一复杂的调查事件简化为一个攻击柯林斯“忽视缅因州民众利益”的简单论点。
Why it matters: The big buy from Senate Majority PAC suggests Democrats think they can turn a complicated investigation into a simple message attacking Collins' willingness to put Maine first.
这也反映出民主党认为ProPublica报道中所提及的种种指控——而柯林斯坚决予以否认——尚未引起缅因州选民的足够重视。
It also suggests they don't think the allegations in the ProPublica story — which Collins vigorously disputes — have broken through with Maine voters.
广告中，一位女旁白说道：“苏珊·柯林斯收受了非法竞选资金，还将数百万美元的政府合同批给了这些捐款人。”
"Susan Collins took illegal campaign money and steered millions in government contracts to the donor," a female narrator says in the ad.
背景补充：ProPublica的报道主要围绕FBI对柯林斯以及前国防承包商马丁·高的调查展开。据报道，高已承认自己犯下了竞选资金违规及贷款欺诈罪。
Zoom in: ProPublica's reporting focused on an FBI investigation involving Collins and Martin Kao, a former defense contractor who pleaded guilty to campaign-finance and loan-fraud charges.
据ProPublica披露，高向调查人员供称，他的国防与工程公司通过向柯林斯及其支持团体捐款，从而成功获得了数千万美元的联邦国防合同。
Kao told investigators that his defense and engineering company used political contributions to Collins and groups supporting her to help secure tens of millions of dollars in federal defense contracts, according to ProPublica.
认罪后，高开始配合FBI调查，希望借此减轻刑罚。报道还称，特朗普总统重新执政后，该项调查便不了了之。
After pleading guilty, Kao began cooperating with the FBI in hopes of reducing his sentence. The article claims the investigation died after President Trump returned to office.
柯林斯方面的回应：柯林斯对报道中的核心指控予以否认，并指出司法部最终并未对她提起任何指控。她强调：“调查结果显示，我的竞选团队成员、办公室工作人员以及我本人均没有任何违规行为。”
The other side: Collins has disputed the story's central claims and pointed to the Justice Department's decision not to bring charges. The investigation found "no wrongdoing by anyone on my campaign staff, my office or me," she said.
广告投放数据方面：据AdImpact统计，在竞选最后几周，共和党已预订了3400万美元的广告时段，而民主党则预订了2400万美元。
In the campaign's final weeks, Republicans have reserved $34 million of air time, compared to $24 million for the Democrats, according to AdImpact.
此前，民主党最初选定的候选人格雷厄姆·普拉特纳因被曝涉嫌性侵而退出竞选，杰克逊随后成为该党的新候选人。普拉特纳坚称自己并未实施此类行为。
值得注意的一点：就在此时，参议院多数党超级政治行动委员会正紧急向主要捐款人募款，以期在日益复杂的竞选局势中保持竞争力。
Jackson is the Democrats' nominee after their initial pick, Graham Platner, withdrew following reports of sexual assault, which he denied. The intrigue: The new ad comes as Senate Majority PAC is pleading with its top donors for more money to help it compete on an expanding map.
据《纽约时报》获得并经Axios证实的一份备忘录显示，SMP于周四给捐赠者发函称：“在竞选活动的最后阶段，民主党团体仍急需更多资源才能保持竞争力。”
"Democratic groups still urgently need additional resources to remain competitive in the final days of the campaign," SMP wrote to its donors on Thursday, according to a memo obtained by the New York Times and confirmed by Axios.
“民主党并不存在候选人或宣传信息方面的问题。真正的问题在于付费媒体渠道——由于外部资金支持存在缺口，解决这一问题的成本每周都在增加。”
"Democrats do not have a candidate problem or a message problem. They have a paid-media challenge that gets more expensive to solve every week the outside-money gap holds."