Maine news, sports, weather from Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram, Portland, Maine

March 10, 2012

For King, financing poses challenge

Much depends on the competition, but the independent will need to raise funds without party backing and he'll be up against super PACs.

By Ann S. Kim akim@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

The last time Angus King Jr. ran for office, he easily surpassed his four competitors' fundraising in an inexpensive race for governor.

The race for the U.S. Senate seat he's now pursuing will surely make the numbers from King's 1998 re-election appear paltry.

In 1998, King, an independent, spent about $785,000 -- nearly four times as much as the other candidates' expenditures combined. He did that even after imposing a $250 cap on each campaign contribution, a limit to which the vast majority of his donors adhered.

At the time, the legal limit was $1,000 from individuals and $5,000 from corporations.

In this year's race for the seat to be vacated by U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe, a "modest" campaign budget could require $2 million to $3 million, says one national Democratic consultant, and the amount could rise sharply depending on who is in the race.

The race involves an unexpectedly open seat and is likely to draw national attention at a time when outside groups can spend unlimited amounts in support of a candidate.

King acknowledged that campaigns are more expensive than when he last ran for office -- and won with about 59 percent of the vote.

He said he will skip one costly expense -- negative television advertising, which he sees as ineffective in Maine anyway -- but said he may have to run ads to defend himself.

"Money is important in politics, but I don't think it's the whole deal by any means," King said Friday.

Jamie Broder, King's finance co-chair, said the amount needed for the campaign will depend on the other candidates and the money that gets put into the race by the national parties and others from outside Maine.

He said the King campaign will not be able to compete dollar-for-dollar with national party funding but won't have to because King is already well known throughout Maine.

"It's a question of communicating to the people of Maine his ideas and how he can serve in Washington in a situation where the Congress is a broken institution and can't seem do to the people's business," said Broder, who was King's finance chair in 1994 and 1998 and co-chair of his gubernatorial transition team in 1994. "It's not going to take $10 million to convey that message."

In 1998, contributions to King's campaign totaled $775,877. He raised $371,324 from individuals and $81,972 from corporations. King and his wife contributed $10,480 and loaned the campaign $289,140.

The individual contributors included lawyers, educators, fellow Brunswick residents and chiropractors -- who were grateful to King for signing a bill that allowed patients to see them without referrals from primary care physicians, said John Royce, executive director of the Maine Chiropractic Association.

There also were retirees, homemakers, the self-employed and representatives of the nonprofit sector.

Bath Iron Works employees were well represented. The late Duane "Buzz" Fitzgerald, BIW's former president, was among King's core supporters. Other well-known donors from the business community were Leon Gorman of L.L. Bean, Thomas Chappell of Tom's of Maine, David Shaw of Idexx Laboratories and David DeLorme of DeLorme.

In the campaign finance reporting periods from July 15 to Dec. 8, 1998, several companies donated at levels beyond King's $250 cap.

Hancock Lumber Co. gave $4,319; Bath Iron Works gave $4,349; Georgia Pacific gave $3,778; Curtis, Thaxter, Stevens, Broder & Micoleau gave $2,197; and Cianbro Corp. gave $1,980.

Curtis, Thaxter is the law firm of former Gov. Kenneth Curtis, one of the prominent Democrats who supported King.

It can't be assumed that King's 1998 donors will contribute to his Senate campaign, said Douglas Hodgkin, professor emeritus of political science at Bates College and a Republican activist.

(Continued on page 2)

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