AUGUSTA — Spending by the three major candidates in the Maine governor’s race has reached $4.2 million with about 40 days left until the election.
In total, the three campaigns have in excess of another $2 million to spend, according to new campaign finance reports filed Tuesday. That does not include what’s likely to be a heavy influx of outside spending in the hotly contested race.
Republican Gov. Paul LePage and Democrat Mike Michaud have some $1 million of campaign cash each heading in the final weeks of the race, with independent Eliot Cutler sitting on about $380,000 in his campaign account.
Cutler’s cash-on-hand number is deceptively low, given the career lawyer’s ability and willingness to self-fund much of his campaign, which means he could meet or exceed his opponents’ spending if he so chooses. Of the $2.7 million Cutler has raised since entering the race last year, the candidate contributed $1.1 million himself, including $100,000 on the last day of the reporting period that spanned July 16 to Sept. 16.
Cutler, who spent about $1.6 million of his own money while finishing a close second in the 2010 gubernatorial campaign, is also making heavy in-kind contributions for mostly food, lodging and travel expenses, which totalled more than $12,000 in the latest reporting period.
Cutler’s spending to date of $2.2 million is well ahead of LePage and Michaud.
Michaud, serving his sixth term as Maine’s 2nd District congressman, has raised $2.4 million in the campaign and spent more than $1.3 million. LePage has raised about $1.6 million and spent about $650,000 to date.
One of the more interesting numbers in the campaign finance reports is spending since mid-July, which is a loose indication of a campaign’s efforts to improve its position in the race. Cutler, who has trailed in distant third since the race took shape, claimed last week that his campaign’s internal polling showed his support at 19 percent, which is a markedly higher than he’s polled in recent months. If that number is accurate — and his opponents question its validity — it could be a result of the fact that the independent spent $664,000 in the past two months.
That dwarfed Michaud’s spending during that time period of $443,000, and LePage’s $320,000, though LePage’s spending accelerated in September.
These totals reflect only direct spending by the candidates and don’t count millions of dollars of spending by independent groups and political action committees on their behalfs.
All three campaigns released statements Tuesday evening that contained predictable and now-familiar arguments about what the money totals mean. LePage, whose re-election depends on Cutler siphoning support away from Michaud, targeted most of his attacks at Michaud. Even though Cutler leads in money raised and spent, the LePage campaign didn’t mention the independent and instead attacked Michaud for “failing to gain any traction despite burning cash like brush on a bonfire.” LePage and Michaud have been locked in a dead heat for months with Michaud usually polling slightly ahead.
“Congressman Michaud’s campaign spending reflects his habits in Washington, spending campaign cash almost as fast as the nearly 300 percent increase in the national debt that has occurred during his tenure in Congress,” said LePage spokesman Alex Willette.
Cutler campaign spokeswoman Crystal Canney said Cutler is poised to repeat the 11th-hour jump in support he experienced in the final weeks of the 2010 campaign.
“This finance report, coupled with recently released poll numbers showing Eliot climbing steadily at 19 percent, shows that we are surging just at the right time,” Canney said in a written statement. “Our fundraising, just like every other aspect of the campaign, is way ahead of where Eliot was at this point in 2010.”
Michaud’s campaign continued to insist Cutler’s support peaked in November 2010 and that his inability to gain traction after months on the campaign trail this year shows he has no path to victory.
“Mike continues to prove he’s the only candidate in the race who has the grassroots support and the resources to defeat Gov. LePage in the fall,” said Michaud Campaign Manager Matt McTighe, who said Michaud has now collected donations from more than 10,000 donors — including more than 1,500 new ones in the past two months.
At this point in 2010, then-candidates LePage, Cutler, Democrat Libby Mitchell and independents Shawn Moody and Kevin Scott had barely passed the $3 million mark in combined spending. Mitchell’s spending and fundraising were limited by the fact that she ran as a Maine Clean Elections candidate.
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