Susan Collins's re-election campaign has paid $320,696.88 since 2025 to The Morning Group, a fundraising firm co-founded by MacKenzie Dolan, according to Federal Election Commission records. That's six payments from Collins for Senator in 2025 and 2026, the largest $108,000 in May.
Dolan is one of two Collins allies who, in December 2019, got an email from Martin Kao about the fake nonprofit he was setting up to sneak an illegal $150,000 donation to Collins's super PAC. Kao later pleaded guilty and is in federal prison.
The other person on that email was Scott Reed. Today Reed runs Pine Tree Results, the new super PAC working to re-elect Collins — and that super PAC has paid Dolan's firm at least $1.1 million more, the Portland Press Herald reported on October 13.
The scheme
Kao ran a defense contractor with federal contracts, which banned him from making political donations. So he hid the money. He sent $150,000 through a shell group he called the "Society of Young Women Scientists and Engineers" to the 1820 PAC, the main super PAC working to re-elect Collins in 2020.
On December 13, 2019, he emailed Reed, who ran the 1820 PAC, and Dolan, whose firm worked with it, according to a federal investigator's court filings described by the Press Herald:
"I just received confirmation from our bank that the new account for the Society of Young Women Scientists and Engineers will be up and ready to go by early next week. I'll be in touch next week re getting 1820 a check by year end."
When Kao told Reed he was working with his lawyer to set up the shell group to hide the donation, Reed replied, according to emails ProPublica reviewed: "Very smart."
We covered the rest of the story in September: Collins steered millions to Kao's company while he funneled illegal money to her, and the federal corruption probe that grew out of it died after Trump returned to the White House.
Where they are now
Six years later, both people on Kao's email are still working for Collins:
- Scott Reed runs the super PAC re-electing her. The lobbying firm where he works also paid Collins's husband consulting fees last year.
- MacKenzie Dolan's firm is being paid by both Collins's campaign and Reed's super PAC.
What Collins's campaign says
Collins's campaign says Reed and Dolan were "thoroughly investigated" and "cleared by the FBI in 2021." Spokesperson Blake Kernen said Kao blamed Collins and her allies to try to shorten his own sentence, and that the FBI, the Justice Department and the Federal Election Commission didn't believe him.
Asked last month about Reed's "Very smart" reply, campaign manager Steve Abbott said, "I might also say the same thing if I were trying to do something and had consulted with my attorney," adding that he had no firsthand knowledge of the conversation.
It's true that authorities have never accused or charged Reed, Dolan or Collins with wrongdoing. But ProPublica has reported that federal investigators corroborated some of Kao's claims and wanted to open a wider investigation — one that was shut down after Trump took office in 2025.
"Never charged" is a low bar for a U.S. senator. Collins could have cut ties with everyone on Kao's email after he pleaded guilty in 2022. Instead, her campaign is writing checks to one of them.
Why it matters now
Collins is in a tight race against Democrat Troy Jackson. A Democratic attorney has filed an ethics complaint against her over the pay-to-play allegations, and she faced questions about Kao at both of last week's debates, the Press Herald reports.
What the filings show
In December 2019, Martin Kao emailed Scott Reed and MacKenzie Dolan about the shell group he was using to send an illegal $150,000 to Susan Collins's super PAC. Today Reed runs the super PAC re-electing Collins, and Collins's own campaign has paid Dolan's firm $320,696.88 since 2025, according to FEC records. The firm has received at least $1.1 million more from Reed's super PAC.
Source
Susan Collins still working with operatives tied to straw donation scheme — Portland Press Herald
