Donor Behind Collins Campaign Finance Scandal Also Gave To Shaheen

By Leonard Robinson, NH Journal

The campaign donation controversy creating embarrassing national headlines for GOP Sen. Susan Collins in Maine has reached across state lines to snare Sen. Jeanne Shaheen as well.

The retiring New Hampshire Democrat received $5,600 in campaign contributions from Martin Kao, the same defense contractor whose illegal political donations have drawn renewed attention to fundraising surrounding Collins’ 2020 reelection campaign.

Around that same time, the Shaheen campaign reported receiving two contributions from Kao on Oct. 29, 2019: $2,800 for her primary campaign and $2,800 for her general election campaign.

Kao, the former CEO of Hawaii-based Navatek, pleaded guilty in 2022 to offenses involving illegal campaign contributions and false submissions to the Federal Election Commission. The Justice Department’s announcement did not identify Shaheen or connect her contributions to that scheme.

Shaheen declined to comment to NHJournal about the cash she took from the corrupt defense contractor at the same time she served in a leadership role on the Armed Services Committee.

“This is yet another example of Democrats playing fast and loose with campaign finance rules,” said NHGOP Chairman Scott Maltzie in response to the report. “Earlier this week, we saw Opioid Lobbyist Cinde Warmington do it and now Jeanne Shaheen, who, after all her years in Congress, should know better. We just can’t trust the Democrats.”

Shaheen took the donations from Kao at the same time she was advocating tighter restrictions on political money.

In March 2025, she reintroduced a constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United v. FEC decision and other campaign finance rulings. Her proposed Democracy for All Amendment would give Congress and states greater authority to regulate election fundraising and spending.

Speaking at a Brown University fireside chat in April, Shaheen described money as a corrupting influence in politics.

“The most important reform we can do in Congress is to get the money out of politics,” Shaheen said. “The most corrupting influence in our politics is money.”

ProPublica reported this week on allegations involving Kao, Collins and federal contracts.

The established campaign finance violations involved concealing the source of donations. According to the Justice Department, Kao and his co-conspirators used a shell company to funnel prohibited defense contractor funds to a political action committee supporting a Senate candidate. Kao also reimbursed relatives with company funds for contributions to that candidate’s campaign.

The candidate was Collins. The scheme included a $150,000 contribution to 1820 PAC, a super PAC supporting her reelection, rather than a $150,000 contribution directly to her campaign. The distinction separates the super PAC donation from the individual contributions reported by Shaheen’s campaign. Maine Public

Kao’s guilty plea established illegal campaign contributions. It did not establish that Collins exchanged government contracts for donations. Collins’ office rejected the allegations and said her campaign was never the target of the FBI investigation. An FBI spokesman said investigators found no evidence implicating Collins or her campaign staff, according to Maine Public.

And the Justice Department’s announcement provides no evidence that Shaheen’s receipt of Kao’s contributions involved wrongdoing.

This story was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair, unbiased reporting on, and analysis of, political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more stories from the NH Journal, visit NHJournal.com.