Augusta, Maine – In case you missed it, new reporting from POLITICO is calling into question the source of funds supporting a super PAC backing Susan Collins’ reelection campaign.

According to the report, the unknown corporation that “gave a quarter of a million dollars to the pro-Susan Collins super PAC Pine Tree Results,” has “the same address and principal officer” as another dark-money group currently subject to an FEC complaint for running an alleged “straw donor scheme.”

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POLITICO Influence: COLLINS, CORNYN AND QUESTIONABLE CASH
By Daniel Lippman, Daniel Barnes, and Caitlin Oprysko
August 14, 2025

  • A dark-money nonprofit called Condorcet Initiative Corp. recently gave a quarter of a million dollars to the pro-Susan Collins super PAC Pine Tree Results.

  • It’s unclear who funds Condorcet Initiative Corp. In its 2023 tax filing, it listed gross receipts of less than $50,000. The principal officer it listed is Staci Goede, who lives in the D.C. area. Goede, the former CFO of the Republican State Leadership Committee, is now the principal of SAGe Advisory Group and says on her LinkedIn that she is a “treasurer and CFO for federal and non-federal political campaigns, committees and organizations.”

  • Last year, an apparent shell company that had the same address and principal officer was reported to have directed $2.6 million to Republican PACs that were supporting Tim Sheehy’s successful Senate campaign in Montana and groups that supported Matt Dolan’s failed Senate campaign Ohio.

  • The Campaign Legal Center filed an FEC complaint arguing that the company that made the donations, Ardleigh Impact, likely hadn’t done enough work to generate the funds since it had only been incorporated in October 2023 and that it appeared to be a straw donor scheme. An FEC spokesperson declined to comment on the status of any investigation into the complaint, except to say that they didn’t see the matter listed on the FEC’s closed matters list.

  • Goede, Pine Tree Results and Texans for a Conservative Majority didn’t respond to requests for comment.

  • In 2022, three of Collins’ donors, who were former defense contractor executives, were charged with making unlawful campaign donations to Collins and a PAC that supported her.

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