‘BLOOD ON HER HANDS’: Sen. Susan Collins’ Office Vandalized on Election Eve

Election season can bring excitement and anticipation…but it can also be frightening.

Someone sent a disturbing Election Day message to Republican Sen. Susan Collins, vandalizing her Maine office with red paint and the words “BLOOD ON HER HANDS” just hours before voters headed to the polls. And this isn’t the first time.

The chilling incident happened Monday night, Nov. 2, outside Collins’ constituent services office at 160 Main St. in Biddeford, Maine. Photos released by her campaign show the chilling message painted across the sidewalk, alongside a large pool of red paint apparently meant to look like blood. Some paint also appeared to have splattered onto the building’s front doors.

Local reports say Biddeford police received a call about the vandalism shortly before 11 p.m. Monday. Collins’ campaign said nobody entered the building.

“This is another incident in a series and the second attempt at our Biddeford office to intimidate the Senator and her staff,” Collins’ chief of staff, Katie Brown, said in a statement. “These tactics are disturbing, but not effective. Our staff is undeterred and on the job.”

The vandalism is shockingly (or maybe not so shockingly) the second time Collins’ Biddeford office has been targeted in just over a month.

In late September, someone spray-painted the words “Trump Whore” in red across the office doors. Around that same time, Collins revealed that her private home in Bangor had also been vandalized, with someone throwing eggs at her garage, porch and windows.

The incidents come as Collins, 73, is facing an intense re-election battle against Democrat Troy Jackson, a former Maine Senate president. Collins has represented Maine in the U.S. Senate since 1997 and is seeking a sixth term. Jackson previously condemned the vandalism at Collins’ office in September, saying the senator and her staff should be able to work without their office being defaced.

Collins’ Biddeford office is also located near the site of a fatal shooting involving federal immigration authorities in July. Johan Sebastián Guerrero, a 26-year-old Colombian national, was shot and killed by a law enforcement officer during an ICE operation. The shooting later garnered some major controversy over conflicting accounts of whether Guerrero had been the intended target of an arrest warrant.

As of Tuesday afternoon, police had not publicly identified a suspect or announced any arrests regarding the vandalism.

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