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Spending Increasing in Maine's 2nd Congressional District Race

Spending in a Maine congressional race that was already shattering records edged higher today after Hillary Clinton’s coordinated campaign said it would boost efforts here to elect Clinton, along with Democratic 2nd congressional candidate Emily Cain.

During a conference call with reporters, Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook said that the efforts to win in several battleground states focus not only on the former secretary of state but also other Democrats on the ticket. That includes Emily Cain who’s running against Republican incumbent Bruce Poliquin in the 2nd congressional district.

“In order to make our best effort to win the two competitive congressional districts in Nebraska and Maine’s Second Congressional District, we’re going to be investing nearly a quarter of a million dollars to turn out the vote in those two congressional districts,” Mook said.

Both Maine and Nebraska are the only two states that do not follow the winner-take all approach in distributing electoral votes. Maine has four up for grabs. And in the more conservative 2nd district where Republican Donald Trump has been out polling Clinton, he could win one electoral vote even if he lost the 1st congressional district and the statewide vote. Republican Bruce Poliquin’s fortunes could also rise or fall based on the size of that GOP turnout. Poliquin’s spokesman says Clinton’s efforts to get out the vote for Cain speaks volumes about who’s calling the shots for the Orono Democrat.

“Emily Cain will do anything to distract from the fact that Nancy Pelosi is pulling her strings and supporting her campaign with big Super PAC money, including from liberal donors in California and even Wall Street interests,” Byerly said.

Cain spokesman Dan Gleick disagrees: “Look that’s just simply not what the PACS show.”

Gleick says while his candidate appreciates the get out the vote effort that Hillary Clinton plans for the former Democratic state senator, the most recent campaign finance reports from the Federal Election Commission show that Cain’s support is surging. According to the FEC, Cain is less than $300,000 behind Poliquin in total fund raising in this election cycle. And in the last reporting period that ended Sept. 30th, she raised $1.1 million to Poliquin’s $500,000. Gleick says that’s only part of the story.

“Well what’s interesting about that is the difference between Maine people is incredibly, incredibly large,” Glieck said. “What we saw in that report was that nearly 2,000 Maine people supported Emily’s campaign, but only about 133 supported Congressman Poliquin’s and we think that that means there a serious difference between where the candidates are getting their money.”

Gleick says where the money comes from provides a direct link to each candidate’s base of support.

“What it shows is that Emily Cain is supported overwhelmingly by Maine people and Congressman Poliquin is raising most of his money from political action committees and other special interests, says Gleick. “So they can try to distract from that fact, but it doesn’t make the fact any less true.”

FEC reports indicate that, including spending by independent groups, total spending in the 2nd district race now stands at just under $11 million or almost twice as much as when both candidates faced each other two years ago.