A super PAC tied to the U.S. House Republican leadership announced this week it has reserved $1.2 million worth of television airtime in Maine to boost the campaign of a two-term GOP lawmaker seeking re-election.
The Congressional Leadership Fund locked in the election cycle advertising on Maine television stations to lend a hand to U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin, who faces potentially tough opposition in the 2nd District.
The super PAC, which has also said it is opening an office in the district, is spending some of a $10 million allocation on digital advertising, as well, in its quest to help Poliquin.
The super PAC’s executive director, Corry Bliss, said its “historic and aggressive fundraising pace has allowed us to place larger advertising buys earlier than ever.”
“By reserving advertising early, investing unprecedented resources in digital, and running the country’s only House-focused national field program, CLF is prepared to lead the way in defending the House Republican majority,” he said in a prepared statement.
Cole Leiter, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said, “The same Washington swamp” that Poliquin “is working for in Congress is parachuting in to prop him up in Maine.”
In 2016, nearly 22,000 television ads focused on the 2nd District race between Poliquin and Democrat Emily Cain. During the six weeks leading up to the election that year, Maine TV stations were airing more than 330 of them daily.
The Wesleyan Media Project determined that two-thirds of all of the congressional campaign ads in the district two years ago were negative in nature.
All told, candidates and political action committees shelled out more than $7.1 million for ads in the district in 2016.
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