Good morning from Augusta. Assistant Maine House Majority Leader Jared Golden picked up his fundraising pace en route to and after being tapped last month as Democrats’ nominee to face U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin, but the Republican incumbent is still miles ahead in the money race.
The race for Maine’s 2nd District is of national interest for the third straight cycle, but Poliquin will be difficult to defeat in November. Poliquin, who is in his second term, has now raised more than $3 million to defend his seat as of June 30, according to new filings due Sunday to the Federal Election Commission. That’s nearly 64 percent of all the money raised by all five major candidates for Maine’s two congressional seats.
Poliquin, a member of House committees overseeing the financial sector and the Department of Veterans Affairs, has gotten 54 percent of his money from political committees. Among his donors this cycle were the National Rifle Association, Amazon and the financial sector giants Capital One and Allstate.
More than 91 percent of Golden’s money has come from individuals and he has raised nearly $1.1 million overall since the primary’s start. He outraised Poliquin from May 24 to June 30 at $393,000 to Poliquin’s $348,000, but he had to fight through a June 12 primary with conservationist Lucas St. Clair and basically had to start from scratch after that.
To read the rest of “The money race in Maine’s 2nd District is heating up, but Poliquin has a huge head start,” an article by contributing Bangor Daily News staff writer Michael Shepherd, please follow this link to the BDN online.
