Maine is a bastion of independent thinkers and doers. Always has been, always will be. 

Yet during this election cycle there is a Star Wars cantina of billionaire megadonors, Fortune 500 CEOs and corporate dark money bundlers pumping cash into Susan Collins’ campaign coffers. 

93% of Susan Collins’ campaign contributions come from outside Maine.

Those “donors” arrogantly believe they can tell Mainers what to think and how to vote — they and Susan Collins insult Mainers’ intelligence. 

Do DownEast lobstermen need a New Jersey corporation to explain how to haul a line? Do Lewiston restaurant owners need cooking advice from the CEO of an Illinois hedge fund? Do Augusta teachers need a Silicon Valley tech bro to lecture them on classroom planning? Do Portland nurses need directives from New York billionaires?

Susan Collins thinks Mainers need these outsiders’ help deciding whom to vote for. Our common sense doesn’t deceive us. She dissembles and we see it. She shovels up filthy money and we smell it. She speaks out of both sides of her mouth and we hear it. No amount of out-of-state propaganda should blind us to the truth: when she genuflects to her executive-branch master and her financiers she does not represent Maine.

On Election Day, Mainers must choose: do we trust ourselves, or do we listen to outsiders with ulterior motives? We can read the ballot. We know what to do.

I’m voting for the candidate who answers to Maine — not to Manhattan. I’m voting for Troy Jackson. 

Jim Morrison lives on Vinalhaven