The second in a series of television ads, bought by a Washington, D.C.-based, Republican-backed political action committee attacking Maine U.S. Senate candidate Angus King will begin over the long Labor Day weekend.
Maine Freedom, the D.C.-based super PAC that spent $68,750 on an ad supporting Cynthia Dill, the Democrat in the race, has poured another $68,750 into the race by purchasing television ads attacking King.
An attempt to reach the treasurer of the Maine Freedom PAC, Michael Adams, was not successful Friday.
The ads are expected to be oppositional in nature, based on records filed with the Federal Election Commission.
At least $25,000 of the new round of advertising will be spent on television spots, many during prime time or peppered around popular morning and evening news shows on Portland NBC affiliate WCSH, a review of public records at the station’s Portland headquarters showed.
The ads are set to run from Monday, Sept. 3, to Sunday, Sept. 9. They aim to benefit Republican candidate Charlie Summers, Maine’s secretary of state.
Summers has been polling a distant second to King, a former Maine governor, but Summers’ campaign has noted in messages sent to party members soliciting donations that internal polls show him gaining.
“Our polling shows Charlie gaining fast, and as we head into Labor Day, we’ve got this race closer than we’d planned by now,” Summers’ campaign manager Lance Dutson wrote in a message to supporters. “Angus has spent twice as much money as we have, and his lead has been cut by 17 points. He keeps shoveling money into his campaign, but it’s not helping. The more he spends, the worse his numbers get.”
The Maine Freedom ads are the second attacking King that are sponsored by an entity outside Summers’ campaign and outside Maine.
Earlier this summer, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which is not affiliated with the Maine State Chamber, spent $400,000 on television advertising during the Olympics to attack King’s record as governor.
In June, King challenged the other Senate campaigns in Maine to shun super PAC spending by adopting a practice of donating to charity an equal amount whenever a super PAC spent on a campaign’s behalf.
Dill’s campaign said it was willing but then wanted to negotiate additional terms to the agreement, including limiting individual campaign donations to $500 and banning candidates from spending on their own campaigns.
“We clearly stated this proposal would only work if all the candidates agreed to reject super PAC money, not just one or two,” said Crystal Canney, a spokeswoman for King’s campaign. “Charlie Summers publicly indicated he wasn’t interested. After the U.S. Chamber of Commerce negative television ad buy of nearly a half-million dollars, it’s clear why.”
Dutson said Friday that King’s proposal was “kind of laughable,” given King’s strong lead in the polls at the time and his unwillingness to limit personal spending on the campaign.
King used more than $1 million of his money to fund his first gubernatorial campaign, Dutson said.
“Why should one wealthy individual be allowed to spend more than $1 million of his own money to become the governor of Maine?” Dutson asked.
Canney said Friday that King, so far, has loaned his campaign $37,500 for the purchase of laptop computers. “But it’s made very clear that’s only a loan,” Canney said.
Dutson also said Summers’ campaign has fundamental objections about limiting the First Amendment right of free speech.
Dutson had not seen the new Maine Freedom ad, he said. He and Canney said that without seeing the ad’s content, they couldn’t comment further.
King’s campaign has not begun its television advertising but plans to launch its own set of video advertising that will be displayed on the websites of the state’s largest newspapers, including the Sun Journal, beginning Tuesday, Sept. 5.
In the 14-second spot, King talks about his campaign’s work so far.
“People say the political season begins on Labor Day,” King says in the ad. “But I’ve been traveling Maine and talking to people all summer. We are working on taking Maine’s independent spirit to Washington.”
Dylan Martin, a staff writer with the Forecaster newspaper group, contributed to this report.
You can all hate on King as much as you want, but when push comes to shove Washington is in trouble with the divide created by partisan politics and King is looking to change this. Hate all you want, I’m voting for King.
The debt is the biggest challenge. Reeling in the size of the federal govt is the biggest part of this challenge.
King nearly doubled the size of Maine’s state budget in eight years.
Why on Earth anyone would want to send him to DC to address this crisis escapes me. Summers says he knows where the fat is in the Pentagon, and will work with other congresswo/men and the President to effectively cut the budget.
King supports Obama and Obamacare. This immediately disqualifies him for serious consideration.
An excellent post! And the logic is inescapable and irrefutable!
Appropriately, at present it is the last post on this thread – there’s little more to be said!
Charlie Summers is a Grover Norquist puppet. That immediately disqualifies him for any consideration.
Why do you continue to align everyone with whom you disagree as being somebody’s “puppet”?
If it’s not Grover Norquist, it’s the Koch Brothers, et cetera.
Google Grover Norquist and you will see lists of politicians who have signed his pledge. Google Grover Norquist and find out the tacticts used against any Republican with the guts to tell him no. In this state we have Governor LePage, 4 Senators and 32 Representatives who have signed the pledge. In DC all but a handful of Republicans in the Senate and Congress have signed the pledge.
IMO no unelected individual should weild this much power over our elected representatives. This is down right dangerous.
I don’t necessarlity disagree with your final sentence.
However, can’t you see where so many others feel the same way about George Soros, or so many of NoBama’s buddies?
Is there a written pledge to George Soros? If so I would be greatly interested in seeing a list of the signers.
Why do you call Democrats, Marxist?
Purely rhetoric with intent to defame and inflame !
1) I don’t call Democrats “Marxist” across the board. However, it’s painfully clear that over the past 50-60 years, Marxist decided they couldn’t gain direct support in America, so have joined with certain “Progressives”.
Not all Democrats are Marxist; but certainly all Marxist have become Democrats.
Both embrace the notion of “To each according to their need. From each according to their ability”.
Or, as the BDN espouses, we “Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable”.
2) Your sentence requires either “Pure rhetoric”, or “Purley rhetorical”. Your choice.
3) I don’t find calling certain folks “Marxist” as any more inflamatory or demanatory than throwing around “bigot”, “sexist”, “rich” on these posts. It’s all a matter of one’s perspective.
Both embrace the notion of “To each according to their need. From each according to their ability”.
Or, as the BDN espouses, we “Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable”.
I don’t find calling folks “Marxist” as any more inflamatory or demanatory than throwing around “bigot”, “sexist”, “rich” on these posts. It’s all a matter of one’s perspective.
“King nearly doubled the size of Maine’s state budget in eight years.”
And we had a booming economy back then!
What we have now is a Sick Horse and a Governor who wants to starve it because it eats !
Just as in the Presidential instances, we need to fairly blame the underlying forces that’ve run the cost of Governement up so much.
In King’s instance, it was King John Martin’s Legislature that King failed to reign in.
In Bush’s last two years, it was Harry Reid’s Senate Bush failed to reign in.
In Obana’s first two years, it was Nancy Pelosi’s House Obama failed (or in this case, encouraged) to reign in.
True, the Chief Executive holds a Veto Pen, and King and Bush can be blamed for failing to exercise theirs.
However, the underlying driver continues to be the Elected Representatives in each case.
Oh, and hate doesn’t enter into it. It is a completely rationale choice to reject a man who, just prior to launching this campaign, said he regretted that he did not do more to reduce taxes with the surplus revenue Maine amassed in the 90s. What a load of manure!
He is a Democrat through and through, thus will be a much greater source of the problem than the solution.
Yeah, Angus was so concerned about lowering our taxes he fought tooth and nail to keep the extra penny on the sales tax when it was about to expire by law.
Oh well! As Barnum said: “There’s one born every minute!”
King has never seen a problem he didn’t think he could tax and spend his way out of. Why is bring up facts and Kings records hate?
If Summers believes that then he should be man enough to stand up and say it himself instead of hiding behind attack ads by out of state rich people.
If Summers says nothing then we should assume he thinks King is a great leader and the ads are wrong.
I hope they show the picture of Summers smiling as he talks about taking old peoples drivers licenses that was in the Bangor Daily News a few weeks ago.
I suggest you go back and read the article! Summers proposed no such thing!
The pickpocket of the public, Angus “you are my subjects” King is TOPS!
First there was the lapTOP.
Then the mountainTOP with your fraudulent wind projects.
Now you want the hillTOP in the District of Cronyism.
But we’re planning to STOP you.
he’s going to win by a huge margin
While you are gazing in your crystal ball, got any stock tips you care to share, so I can be sure to avoid them?
Summers has a real shot at this. Don’t know if he’ll win it but I sure hope so.
Amen! Well said.
So you are voting for Grover Norquist?
Continuously silly question.
The more they air these aids, the more I become determined to vote for Angus King.
Head meet sand.
I agree. I do not like any of the 3 major candidates but these nasty mean spirited ads from out of staters might push me to vote for King. They need to be taught that tactic backfires in Maine or it will never go away and will be worse next time.
There’s nothing special about Maine that would make a tactic backfire there but not in other states. It’s an ordinary place. And if an ad is your primary reason for deciding whom to vote for, that’s pretty shallow.
well jdtex, why in hell do you think they run the ads?
No, It is part of my reason for choosing who to vote AGAINST.
.
Summaers is showing his colors — and they are UGLY.
.
I would never vote for Dill anyway, Summer’s cowardice that pushes me towards King.
This is Out of stater money ? Now king is an out-of-stater, born in virginia, how should I feel about that tykes?
When did Kewanee, Illinois, the place where Charlie Summers was born become part of Maine?
His numbers may be down 17 points, but he’s still 20 points ahead of Chuckie. And if the Republicans LOVE Chuckie so much, why do they run ads attacking Kind instead of ads promoting Chuckie. Do they not believe that Chuickie has what it takes to get elected? Give me a reason to vote for Chuckie.
Angus King has a:
– Silver tongue
– Gold lined pockets…at the citizen’s expense
– Brass you know whats
Not the kind of metal we need in a Senator.
All CMP customers just swallowed a 19.6% increase in electrical transmission rates — the first of many such increases to come over the next few years and directly the result of carpetbaggers like King. In fact King is the number one culprit since he changed the laws that set all of this in motion.
(Just google “What every Maine ratepayer needs to know”).
It is also a disgrace that with the help of Chellie Pingree, Angus King got a $102 million Obama-style Department of Energy Loan Guarantee for his wind project in Roxbury that conveniently assigns all risk to the public while all profits are of course private. The man knows how to stick his hand in the cookie jar and now he has his sights set on the big cookie jar on the Hill.
Particularly nauseating is that King’s partner in this useless wind energy scam is none other than the Yale University Endowment. One of the requirements of the DOE loan program was financial need and it is nothing short of revolting that King the insider and Yale the insider with $20 billion in assets got this approved. Again, Chellie Pingree, now co-owner of the Maine Sussman Telegram intervened on King’s behalf.
King will surely drop more in the polls and by October 1st I predict we’ll have quite the race on our hands.
Sorry Angus, but you are about to learn we are a lot smarter than you think and have bet on.
Of course, replacing power lines that were strung 50 years ago wouldn’t have anything to do with replacing them, would it? What do you think is the life span of power lines? As far as King being elected, I don’t think he has much to worry about. You see, telling half-truths is what has the Repubs in this State in trouble to begin with. You are following party policy.
You obviously didn’t yet read the Republican Platform that was passed this week. It called for praising those who worked hard and made a success of their lives a la Angus King has done. Long live the KING!!
I want what your smoking.
I don’t smoke. It’s bad for your health.
Whatever Angus has was given to him by Barrack Obama, just ask Obama.
I love it when people like you run out of information aka FACTS you just say anything. You lose all credibility and thus support. I love it because you give votes to King and Obama.
Like the good democrat that you are, vote for King and snub your candidate, Dill. And the fact is, Obama has already told us that it is government that creates(d) ALL business success.
Yet, it’s Ok for Mr Vigue to engage in a Public / Private partnership for an East West Highway / Corridor to the benefit of few Carpetbaggers !
The Public foots the bill for the study , takes the risk , and Vigue walks away with the prize!But I guess that he is a “Republican” so it’s OK!
You’re off base on both counts…
Any Report paid for my Cianbro would never be accepted; only a State-contracted Study has any chance of acceptance.
Vigue, like the Chiancette Family with whom he’s worked most of his life, have been life-long Democrats.
Unlike the current gang of Progressives/Marxists, they fall more in line with the more conservative JFK of the “old” Democrat Party.
I do beleive they are all Republicans at heart, always have been always will be. Regardless of any sheepskin they may have threw over them to disguise. Besides my recollection was Vigue was asked to run for Governor by the Republicans and turned it down to run the business.
There is a Public / Private Partnership statute that defines the who will pay for the study and it was circumvented by the sweatheart deal of recent shifting it over to the State.
You should know that having been in the legislature!
Forgive me, as passing 2,000 pieces of Legislation each year for four years allows me to not be familar with your suggested statute.
I still disagree with your essential point.
Vigue, like the Cianchett’s, are pro-business, small-government Democrats, as a great many Blue Dog Democrats are in the south.
Can’t you appreciate their deciding to sell Cianbro to their employees in an ESOP? This way, EACH employee is a stock-holder, and enjoys a voice in the company’s future.
Finally, can you honestly state that Baldacci’s standing aside to let Casella “rape Juniper Ridge” or GP to walk away with their multi-million landfill trust fund at the expense of Maine taxpayers, to be examplary of Public/Private Partnership statutes?
Did you pass all that legislation without knowing what was in it like you post Comments telling me that I am wrong without being aware of the law ?
Shoot from the hip much?
Maine’s share of the study is $60,000 and the federal government chips in $240,000. If the project is a go, the developer reimburses Maine and the Feds for the cost of the study.
And if its not the “Tax Payers” foot the bill!
Brilliant!
Maximize profits, Minimize risk!
How about some ads that promote Summers? Maybe for his integrity, honesty, vision, and organization. Ohhh, that’s why there are no ads supporting Summers.
Nice one!! *applause*
Maybe they haven’t found anything good to say about him.
OK, he’s a good puppet of Grover Norquist/ALEC/MHPC.
Keep spending that out of state money dirtbags!
The people of maine can see thru the vast amounts of negativity coming from out of state.
Angus King will be our next Senator, and a reasoned voice in the US Senate.
Does anyone with even the least bit of intelligence actually fall for this? Wait – it must be so. Otherwise it would have stopped long ago. There must be something to the contention that the dumb head vote will carry the day. Is it a teensy bit cynical, you might ask? You bet! And it’s only September 1st!
And it is amazing how they are getting people to bad mouth Angus so nicely as soon as an article like this comes up. You are right: Mainers are not dumb; and neither is Mr. King. If he manages to stay above the fray and keep it clean he will win by a landslide and the opposition knows it. ;) He is a CAN DO man who lives in the solution and is just what our country needs. A little less negative rhetoric and more action. “The one thing I want to accomplish is to make Obama a one term President.”, says a lot about how much they live in the solution.
King is neither a Democrat or a Republican…TRUE….
He is a self-serving, subsidy sucking Politcal Scoundrel , Snake Oil Industrial Wind Scammer and Tax Payer Parasite!
Beyond the above description, do YOU want him in US Senate?
Do you think he will represent YOU!
I think he will represent the Maine people as much as Summers would represent the Teatards!
Now substitute the name Summers for King and your reaction should still be the same…
BDN,Stop the censorship of my posts , or you too are complicit in breaching all of our rights, like King does.!
“Societal Leeches” like King must be exposed to the light of day, so they can shrival when exposed to the light of day.
SUMMERS 2012 !!!
More carpetbagging? They don’t learn, do they.
Meanwhile, Cynthia’s campaign can’t even raise enough money to buy everyone on her staff their own hammer and sickle.
LOL! Very good!
The USA is sliding down the entitlement hill toward financial oblivion. Another term for Obama may mean the end of our republic. The EU can (combined) bail out Greece, Italy or Spain – providing, of course, that Germany (the only fiscally responsible nation in the EU) stays on board. There is no entity in the world large enough to bail out the USA if (when) the dollar collapses!
The last thing this country needs is another democrat in Washington (even a fake one like King!)
Ya Obama saves $716 billion out of Medicare and look at all the grief he gets from R’s–He finally gets a healthcare bill passed, an R’s idea and look at the gun fire from R’s. He tries to make a deal with the R’s on cuts and the House says no. The R’s agree to accept cuts to the military if they can’t compromise and now they blame Obama for the cuts. It is the R’s that is the last thing we need in Washington, god just look at how they left us in 2008. Now they are saying lets go back to tax cuts, I guess their benefactors need to get their money back that they are pissing away backing (R)money.
“Saves”?
Don’t you mean “takes” money out of Medicare and “spends” in on Obamacare?
NoBama has NEVER made a legitimate effort to “compromise” with Republicans, and can’t even get his own Budget passed in the House with any Democrat support.
Are you referring to NoBama’s complete failure of leadership in having Harry Reid even PRESENT a Budget for a floor vote?
He’s a COWARD and complete failure as a Leader. Why else vote “Present” during floor votes in the Illinois Senate? He never wants to take the blame on anything that just might turn awry.
Finally, it was the Democrat Congress that “left us” where we were the last two years of Bush’s term, not R’s.
He saves, according to the CBO, 8 years of Medicare. To compromise with R’s he would have to go to their side 100%, that is not compromise. Your so called minority leader said the number one priority was to make Obama a 1 term president. The R’s the night Obama was sworn into office met to be sure they would not pass anything which might give him a win, basically saying to hell with the country we must stop him from winning anything. You R’s start two wars cut taxes, let the banks run wild and then blame the D’s for putting us in an economic free fall. Are you in another world or just refuse to see that the R’s do a few things wrong? Now because the congress could not agree on anything and the R’s agreed that the military would be cut if no agreement was reached, it is now Obama’s fault. You blame Obama for lowing the standards for welfare work, when all he did was tell the states that requested a chance to try some things on their own to get people back to work, Mitt (R)money requested that back in 2005 and at least 2 other R’s requested the same thing, are the R’s now saying they wanted to gut the standards for welfare work?
The absolute out and out lies that are coming out of t he R’s mouths is enough to make anybody sick. This among many other things is way I am no longer a R.
I’m evnious of the absolute clarity you’re able to bring to this discussion.
For my part, there’s far to much “going bad” in both major parties and we should demand term limits for Congress just as we do for Presidents, Governors, and Legislators.
For every “complaint” you list about Republicans, one could just as easily post such a list for Democrats (Now, you certanly can’t argue that Chris Dodd and Barney Frank’s hands were untarnished regarding our current problems can you?).
If you pay close attention to these pages, I generally choose NOT to speak in support of most Republicans, per se, yet do enjoy posting a contrary opinion to perspectives such as yours.
Yes, LePage IS a Neanderthal, just far more preferable to Baldacci’s disabling incompentence.
Yes, Bush initiated two wars; but with tacit support from Congressional Democrats.
Yet, Barry has called Afganistan his “good and just war”, failed to close down our base in CUBA, and drops droid bombs from 10,000′ that kill both innocent AND guilty.
Praytell, how’s he any better than Bush regarding these wars?
Why should King buy advertisements? Read the blogs that are advertised on various media sites (including this one.) They are giving him all the favorable publicity that he needs!
Lets all vote for Charlie Summers— That is for dog catcher, that is all he is qualified for at this point. If for Senate he will be a puppet for Mitch (beady eyed) McConnell and we don’t need that.
Mitch and Charlie are both puppets of Grover Norquist, the unelected president of the Republican Party/Tea Party.
You are right.
Isn’t it about time that drum you’re pounding to be wearing out?
When these puppets are voted out of office I will stop pounding this drum. I would pound the same drum if there were an extreme left winger that held the purse strings to election forcing politicians to sign a pledge for any one of their agendas.
We read below that “The debt is the biggest challenge. Reeling in the size of the federal govt is the biggest part of this challenge.”
It is encouraging to see that I am not the only person who is distressed to see our government spending around half of what it takes in on the military establishment. — Although most of the money GWB spent on his wars was probably borrowed.
As long as records have been kept, most countries that have had wars on their hands have had to borrow money. Most of those wars were waged for economic reasons — to take something away from some other country that owned it.
We don’t hear enough talk about all the money that is flushed down a rat hole to wage wars here and there.
So it’s good to see that I’m not the only person who is concerned. The war debt is certainly our
biggest challenge.
The humble Farmer
A couple points on spending since 2001 US war debt 1.3 trillion dollars. Obama stimuls package 9oo billion dollars. This is all borrowed money.
Also we waged these wars while at the same time cutting the federal income by cutting taxes.
Karl, I understand your Scandinavian roots; but have you ever talked with someone from Luxembourg who was liberated by the Allies? Okinawa? South Korea?
I’d suspect the Finn’s weren’t too pleased with Axis occupation either.
Have you noted the extraordinary support America receives from the Baltics since the failure of Communist Russia with the support of America? You won’t even need to travel “over there” to do so; just head down to the Jordan Pond House to talk with young Estonians, Hungarians, etc to ask how they “hate” American Imperialism.
Yes, few support the current “wars” (Which were supported by BOTH R’s and D’s in Congress)and NoBama’s “good war” still ongoing.
At the same time, over the past two centuries, American’s have far more often applied our military to the betterment (at least well-intended) to the benefirt of free-thinking peoples around the globe.
It’s so easy to be “anti-war” when some other super power has your back.