SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine — If you see a sign with a candidate's name on it, you probably assume it was paid for by that candidate, their party, or their supporters. However, that's not necessarily the case in the Maine 2020 Senate race.
In South Portland, several "Vote Sara Gideon DEFUND THE POLICE" signs line the streets.
Maine law requires signs to disclose where they came from. If you look closely, you'll see "PAID FOR BY THE MAINE REPUBLICAN PARTY" at the bottom of every sign.
Executive Director of the Maine Republican Party Jason Savage confirms it did pay for the signs. "There was clearly no intent to hide it," says Savage. "Every time we've been asked, we've said that they're ours."
Savage says the goal of the signs, in part, is to call attention to Gideon's connections to the 'Defund the Police' movement.
"The idea is to highlight the fact that Sara Gideon has taken over 6 million dollars from groups that want to defund the police. She skipped one of the televised debates to go to a fundraiser for a group that supports defunding the police," Savage says.
"We want to tell people—if you want to defund the police and support the kind of lawlessness and destruction that the Democratic Party has created, then Sara Gideon is great. But if you want to support the police and 'back the blue,' then make the decision to vote for Susan Collins."
However, in the first Senate debate, Gideon said defunding police is not something she supports.
"I just want to be clear, I do not want to defund the police. I do want to make changes that ensure that people of color do not continue to be brutalized or killed," Gideon said at the debate.
This is not the first time we've seen the strategy of a political party putting out signs that appear to come from an opposing candidate.
Recently, we reported on signs reading "TRUMP COLLINS 2020." NEWS CENTER Maine confirmed they were actually funded by the Maine Democratic Party.
It's an attempt to align Collins with President Trump, given her refusal to say whether she supports his reelection bid.
Maine Dems spokesperson Holly Burke confirmed the organization paid for the signs and released the following statement:
"Senator Collins is refusing to tell Mainers the truth about who she’s voting for but her record is clear — she voted with Trump 94% of the time and has helped confirm 181 of his judicial nominees. Collins has made a political calculation not to tell Mainers who she’s supporting in this election, but she can’t hide from her support for Donald Trump.”
Maine election laws require that political signs be marked with a label to indicate who paid for them. In this case, most signs have 'Paid for by the Maine Democratic Party' at the bottom. Some even have added stickers with contact information.
"This is really nothing more than dirty tricks by the Democrats," Maine GOP's Executive Director Jason Savage said. "So they're creating lawn signs to have a conversation about something that is immaterial to the question of whether Senator Collins been there for the people of Maine, which she has."
The Collins campaign responded as well accusing Gideon of playing "petty political games."
"Since the beginning of this campaign the Democratic Party has attempted to make it look like I'm an appendage of President Trump or Mitch McConnell," Collins said following a tour of Global Secure Shipping in Old Town last week.
Collins once again refused to say who she planned to support in the presidential race.
"Well as I've said, I'm concentrating on my own race, which obviously is a tight race, and I will work with whoever is elected President," Collins said.