Maine Sen. Susan Collins’ husband did consulting work for Chesapeake Enterprises, a lobbying firm that has pushed for more data center development.

This was in 2025 when the firm’s only registered lobbyist was Scott Reed, the man at the center of an alleged pay-to-play scheme that is now threatening to derail Collins’ reelection campaign.

Concerns about data centers and political corruption have consistently ranked as top issues for voters this year. Now, Collins is playing defense on both matters simultaneously.

Collins married Thomas Daffron in 2012. Daffron had worked as a lobbyist, business consultant, and Republican political advisor. Collins’ net worth went from $250,000 to $2.9 million when they tied the knot. Today, it’s up to $4.1 million.

Collins’ personal financial disclosures filed in May indicate that Daffron was paid at least $1,000 in consulting fees last year by Chesapeake Enterprises. Senate rules require spouses to report any income exceeding $1,000, but not the exact amount. Daffron previously served as the firm’s executive vice president from 2001 to 2004.

Daffron was advising Chesapeake Enterprises when they lobbied the federal government last year on behalf of Hillwood Investments, a real estate development company that is chaired by billionaire H. Ross Perot Jr., a Collins campaign donor.

Hillwood Investments helped build at least six data centers now operating in the U.S., including a Texas facility run by Meta, the parent company of Facebook.

These centers, which provide the computing power needed to train and run AI systems, have become controversial for their excessive use of electricity and water, which has contributed to rising utility bills across the country.

A recent New York Times/Siena poll found that 61 percent of Americans oppose building data centers in their communities. Multiple communities in Maine have now enacted moratoriums on building more data centers.

Reed was Chesapeake Enterprises’s registered lobbyist for the Hillwood Investments account in 2025. Disclosures indicate that Reed lobbied the House and Senate on topics related to “real estate investments.”

Reed is also the head of Pine Tree Results, a super PAC supporting Collins. In 2019, the FBI investigated Reed over a large donation he solicited from Navatek, a defense contractor.

Former Navatek CEO Martin Kao, who is currently serving a prison sentence for wire fraud, told investigators that he gave the donation with the understanding that Collins would then help his company secure millions of dollars worth of federal contracts, which she ultimately did.

The FBI investigation into Reed was dropped shortly after President Donald Trump returned to the White House.

The alleged scheme was first reported by ProPublica on September 22. Collins has questioned the legitimacy of the report and steadfastly denied that any scheme existed. She has also publicly defended Reed.

ProPublica has stood by its story and pushed back on Collins’ denials.

Collins voted for the Ratepayer Protection Act, a bill that would theoretically require large data centers to cover their own electricity costs rather than passing them onto consumers.

Senate Democrats say the legislation is toothless, noting that while it requires state public utility commissions to hold hearings and consider standards for data center cost-sharing, it is not mandatory that those standards actually be enacted.

“It’s just fakery to try to fool voters into forgetting that Republicans spent the entire term trying to stop states from regulating AI,” Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy told Yahoo Finance.

The Ratepayer Protection Act failed to pass the Senate on September 30.

Collins is seeking a sixth term this year and is widely regarded as one of the most vulnerable Republican incumbents facing reelection. Her Democratic opponent, state Sen. Troy Jackson, says data center development should only be greenlit if it has a measurable benefit for Mainers.

Reprinted with permission from American Journal News