Vandals Target Susan Collins Office With Election Message
Left 33%
Center 33%
Right 33%
1 left · 1 center · 1 right
What happened
Late on the night of November 2, 2026, vandals poured red paint on the sidewalk outside Sen. Susan Collins’s (R-Maine) federal constituent service office in Biddeford, Maine, and painted the phrase “Blood on her hands.” Police received a call about the vandalism around 11 p.m.; by Tuesday morning the paint had been washed away. Collins’s chief of staff, Katie Brown, said it was the second attempt to intimidate the senator and her staff at that office; on September 28, 2026, the Biddeford office doors had been spray-painted with “Trump whore.” Collins also said that about a week earlier, eggs were thrown at the garage door, front porch, window, and front door of her Bangor home. She is the Republican incumbent in a tight reelection race against Democrat Troy Jackson.
Sourcing check · Mostly on the record · 3 articles
2 of 3 articles cite a named source for the story. It was on the record from the first report.
What these terms mean and how they're counted
- On the record · names a source 2 of 3
- On the record means the article cites a source by name for the story's main claim: a person, or an institution speaking officially, such as a company statement or a named agency's spokesperson. The opposite is an unnamed source. The count is how many of the counted articles cite at least one such source; the names are everyone named across them, each once however the articles spell it. Here: Katie Brown, Jon Fetherston and Collins' chief of staff
- Primary evidence · cites a document or data 0 of 3
- Primary evidence means the article cites a record you could check yourself: a court filing or ruling, a dataset or report, a recording or transcript, an official statement or press release, market data. A quote is not a document. The count is how many articles cite one. Here: None cited.
- Credits another outlet 0 of 3
- The article says the story comes from another outlet's reporting (“first reported by Reuters”). Those articles relay the story; they are not independent confirmation. Here: Each article presents its own reporting.
- Unnamed sources 0 of 3
- The main claim is attributed to people who are not identified: “people familiar with the matter”, “officials said”. The count is how many articles do this.
- How it developed
- When the first report landed and whether it named anyone; when the first named source and the first document appeared. Here: First report Nov 3, 12:52 UTC by Daily Wire, naming its source.
- Not counted 0
- Opinion, analysis and video pieces, and articles too short to assess. Every count above is out of the counted articles. An article republished under a new headline is one article.
This is about who is cited, not whether the story is true. Each source below says what it names. How we count
Omitted — what each side leaves out
Unpacked
The earlier graffiti on Collins's Biddeford office is missing from left-leaning coverage, so election-eve red paint reads as a one-night incident rather than a repeat personal attack on the same doors. Right-leaning coverage reports those same doors were earlier spray-painted with "Trump whore." Left-leaning coverage notes another strike in a close Senate race and never gives that prior wording. Right-leaning coverage is simply more complete on that prior incident.
Left-leaning coverage puts the Senate contest up front. Right-leaning coverage puts the timing of the targeting up front. One lede is Collins winding down a "tight race." The other is vandals leaving an Election Day message at her office.
Have police named a suspect or filed charges in the Biddeford paint attack?
Bottom line
You would not learn from The Hill that vandals had already painted "Trump whore" on Collins's Biddeford office before the election-eve slogan appeared.
The receipts — 4 facts one side's coverage lacks
- Chief of Staff Katie Brown said the incident was an attempt to intimidate the senator and her staff
- Police received a call about the vandalism around 11 p.m. on Monday
- The paint had been washed away by Tuesday morning
- The vandalized site is a federal constituent service office
The Left View
The Hill treated the Biddeford incident as campaign-eve news about an incumbent’s office being hit for the second time in two months, citing NewsNation photos of the paint and slogan and noting Collins was winding down a tight race. It offered little additional framing, partisan attribution, or claim that the vandalism represented a wider pattern.
The Right View
The Daily Wire and allied conservative outlets framed the paint as an “Election Day message” and part of “targeted vandalism and violence against conservatives in Maine,” a pattern they said has been “repeated countless times over the last few years.” They highlighted Brown’s statement that the tactics are “disturbing, but not effective” and that staff is “undeterred,” Collins’s comment that the egg attack showed how far politics in Maine have “degenerated,” and her history of threats after supporting Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation, including a letter to her Bangor home that claimed to contain ricin but contained starch.
Our Take (balanced)
The left’s strongest showing is the limited public record: a second, photographed act of vandalism at a Senate office on election eve, with no identified suspect and no on-the-record link to a campaign or cause beyond the painted slogan. The right’s strongest showing is the short documented sequence—two Biddeford office attacks plus the egg-throwing at Collins’s home—together with her chief of staff’s characterization of the Biddeford incidents as attempts “to intimidate the senator and her staff.” The central unresolved tension is whether that sequence constitutes a patterned intimidation campaign against a Republican senator or discrete vandalism whose perpetrators and political meaning remain unestablished.
3 sources
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