The website said "In Colleen’s online fantasy world, she gets away with crude, vicious and violent comments" and "Maine needs a State Senator that lives in the real world, not in Colleen’s fantasy world." They also sent out a press release titled "Disturbing Alter-Ego Revealed" which accused her of living a "time-consuming double life." In response, Lachowicz said, "I think it’s weird that I’m being targeted for playing online games. Apparently I’m in good company since there are 183 million other Americans who also enjoy online games. What’s next? Will I be ostracized for playing "Angry Birds" or "Words with Friends"?" She added, "What’s really weird is that the Republicans are going after my hobbies instead of talking about their record while they’ve been running Augusta for the last two years. Instead of talking about what they’re doing for Maine people, they’re making fun of me for playing video games. Did you know that more people over the age of 50 play video games than under the age of 18? As a gamer, I’m in good company with folks like Jodie Foster, Vin Diesel, Mike Myers, and Robin Williams. Maybe it’s the Republican Party that is out of touch." Martin said he was unaware of the party's attacks on Lachowicz until contacted by reporters, and he didn’t condone them. Both candidates were declared "clean election candidates," meaning they were both pledged to abstain from negative campaigning, and could only spend the amount they receive from public financing and a limited amount of donations. A number of gamers raised money for organizations which support Lachowicz' candidacy, since her campaign could not solicit or receive any donations; but she said she would rather not become the poster girl for a game she had almost completely stopped playing due to time pressure. The Maine Republican Party filed an ethics complaint, alleging that she cheated by posting on the ActBlue website, and claiming that this constituted improperly coordinating with political action committees to solicit campaign contributions. The bipartisan Maine Ethics Commission rejected this accusation by a 5-0 vote in Lachowicz’s favor. The attacks attracted international attention, including articles from "Time", the BBC, "Forbes", Slate.com, Politico.com and a piece on the satirical news program "The Colbert Report". After the controversy broke, she told the press that she had had to put her "WoW" playing on hold due to time pressure; but Blizzard Entertainment, she said, had sent her a copy of "Mists of Pandaria", the latest "WoW" expansion pack, signed by the entire development team, and she hoped to play it after catching up on lost sleep.