Wrong Portland: Ad targeting opponent of Maine Sen. Susan Collins reportedly ran in Oregon

The ad was intended to run in the area around Portland, Maine, but Google ad records showed it targeted multiple Oregon ZIP codes, according to media reports.

PORTLAND, Ore. — A recent attack ad targeting Democratic Senate candidate Troy Jackson reportedly ran for four days last week in the wrong Portland.

Jackson is challenging Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, but the GOP super PAC that produced the 30-second ad accidentally spent about $25,000 to run it on digital platforms around Portland, Oregon, rather than Portland, Maine, according to reports from The Intercept, NBC, MS NOW and other outlets.

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It’s not uncommon for voters across the country to see fundraising ads for Senate races in battleground states like Maine, but the ad in this case was clearly intended for an audience of Maine voters, attacking “Taxin Troy Jackson” for past votes in the state legislature to hike various taxes including the sales tax, a thing that Oregon notably does not have.

MS NOW reported that the super PAC, Defending Main Street, confirmed the error and told the outlet that it was a media vendor that made the mistake, and that the vendor has pledged to return all the money. The Collins campaign did not authorize or fund the ad, according to the ad’s disclaimer.

The ad’s listing in the Google Ads Transparency Center at one point confirmed that it had run in Portland-area ZIP codes, according to MS NOW and the Washington Examiner, although as of Monday afternoon the listing appears to have been updated and now shows a list of only New England ZIP codes.

The ad ran from Thursday through Sunday and was shown between 1.25 million and 1.5 million times, according to the Google listing, at an estimated cost of $20,000-25,000.

The West Coast Portland was named for its East Coast counterpart, and the two Portlands are each the largest cities in their respective states and are fairly close latitudinally, though not so much longitudinally. Portland, Oregon has also grown quite a bit larger than its namesake, with a metro area population of about 2.5 million residents, according to the U.S. Census, compared with about 550,000 in and around Portland, Maine.