AUGUSTA, Maine — The national Democratic party’s Senate campaign arm hasn’t endorsed a candidate in Maine’s U.S. Senate race, but it’s wading into the contest with a $410,000 ad buy for a TV spot likely to target Republican candidate Charlie Summers.
The ads from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee will run between Oct. 2 and 12.
“Republican special interests have now spent $2 million boosting a candidate who is fundamentally out of step with the state,” Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee executive director Guy Cecil said in a statement. “Charlie Summers should not be in the United States Senate, and it is time every Mainer knows it.”
The Democrats’ investment in the Maine Senate race follows nearly $2 million in spending on ads targeting independent former Gov. Angus King, the frontrunner in the race whose lead in the polls has shrunk since early surveys in June. Those ads have come from the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Maine Freedom, a recently formed group whose officers have Republican ties and whose ads have encouraged Democrats to vote for Democratic nominee Cynthia Dill over King.
This is the first investment from national Democrats in the Maine Senate race.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, or DSCC, has largely steered clear of the race, endorsing neither King, who hasn’t promised to caucus with Democrats, nor Dill, the Democratic nominee.
“We’re going to continue to monitor the race, but there’s no endorsement in the race,” DSCC spokesman Matt Canter said Friday.
Dill, who has run behind King and Summers in all polls, has criticized the DSCC for not supporting her candidacy.
In an email, Summers spokesman Drew Brandewie said the Democratic ad buy “confirms what we already knew. Charlie’s message of low taxes, less spending and balanced budgets is resonating with Mainers and this race is only going to get tighter.”
National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesman Brian Walsh said in a statement that it’s “remarkable to see national Democrats now spending money in a state where they refuse to even endorse their own nominee.”
Shucks! I thought the National Dems were dumb enough to pick her:)
The National Dems didn’t pick her D.A., Mainers did.
the maine D’s screwed up big time by not voting for matt dunlap in the primary.
Yeah Democrats always win big when they stand behind a crook.
Brian Walsh said in a statement that it’s “remarkable to see national Democrats now spending money in a state where they refuse to even endorse their own nominee.”
I must be getting soft as time goes on. Although I dislike Dill, I do feel sorry for her and hope she goes Independent once the election is over.
She might be able to be successful in running for dog catcher in her home town
To bad she can’t come to Knox county and run against Rector, the assasin of the working man.
Ed Mazurek would certainly appreciate your help.
I wouldn’t go that far but still feel bad for her. She’s like the dog at the shelter that has been there for years. You feel bad for the poor dog but you still ain’t going to adopt it.
After holding those dogs at the shelter for a certain amount of time with no one to adopt them they put ’em to sleep.
Maybe thats what the DNC is doing.
Wow, what a forceful put down …
.
… of the Republicans she has beaten in her state legislative races!
Wow! The National Dem’s will support Angus King, and not one of their own candidates.
They tried sort of the same with Joe Lieberman in Connecticut,but he ran as an independant and beat their chosen one to retain his seat,not much new from the DNC
Surprise, surprise! The national Democrats backing an “independent!” Do you suppose they know something that Maine voters do not? You don’t think maybe Angus has leaked which party he will (if elected) caucus?
I think it’s even more remarkable that the Republicans are spending a fortune encouraging Democrats to vote for a Democrat. Politics does truly make for strange bed fellows.
Everybody seems to want to “help” Dill. First the Republicans…now the Democrats. I think we all know what the game plan is. Ms. Dill…don’t let this go to your head.
Actually nobody really wants you to win! You are the “Monkey in the Middle” or maybe more appropriately the “Dill” Pickle in the Middle.
What a slap in the face to Dill.
I think Dill is a good person and means well. Unfortunately, it’s all a matter of timing. if she wasn’t running against King, she would stand a chance but now all she can do is take votes from him and help Charlie. if she was running for State senator in my district, I would not hesitate to vote for her. i am sure the national dems recognize this and surely don’t want to help Charlie.
She wouldn’t stand a chance even if Lepage is running.
Senator Summers!
In your dreams.
Go Dill!! The DNC should be ashamed.
Dill is in a pickle
The dems won’t give her a nickle
King’s bigwind ties all seem to be bummers
That’s why I’ll be voting for Summers.
Sorry Cynthia, you are a victim of your own parties b&llsh!t politics and this leftist rag hasn’t endorsed you either. If I were a democrat union thug I would be ashamed!
It’s hard to decide which of the two corporate parties is more despicable here. After this sad fiasco is over, I too hope Dill will leave the party that betrayed her and run as the kind of independent candidate that the ever opportunistic Angus King never was and never will be. Too bad a majority of Maine voters are the kind of rubes so easily taken in by his slick Southern ways. They probably believe the word “gullible” has been removed from the Webster’s Dictionary.
Peter… couldn’t agree with you more if I’d said it myself.
These folks seem to take elections like their sporting events. Winning is al important, and quality of the candidate be damned.
Democrats are not supporting their own candidate but instead, are supporting the other democrat that is running, the one that did not have to win a primary or declare what he stood for. That’s what democrats do, throw you to the wolves just so they don’t risk having a republican win. Now that is a sick party.
Raising out of state money wasn’t the only thing King was doing in Washington. Wake up people, King is not to be trusted. The Dems. are throwing their own candidate under the bus for him.
Remember, the current President won the Dem nomination IN SPITE of the DNC’s royalty and WON the Whitehouse.
If I have learned anything from the last election cycle is the DNC and RNC are mainly political royalists, insiders, and hanger-ons who feel that it’s about their own self interest to retain their birth-rite, entitled positions and to keep their ‘spots’ they would sell their mothers down the road.
The case with King and the DNC is a great example!
Dill is the ONLY candidate who dared to run BEFORE Snowe backed out. She has the fortitude needed. If you do not have the courage to run a tough fight then why would you have the courage to actually do the job?
King and Summers are typical darlings of the DNC and RNC royalty, made from the same cloth, bred for the same elitists’ ideals, two empty suited opportunists, running on guilt, fear, and outlandish claims from guys who never dared to run unless they were not running against Smowe.
Dill is a strong, real, and progressive, voice for Maine. Let’s man up Maine.
Dill Can Not Win.
She will not even pull the votes that Libby Mitchell pulled.
She’s too inexperienced (less than 2 years in the ME State Senate) and too Left (she will not pull ANY moderates).
The race is between Angus King and Charlie Summers. Choose.
Don’t waste your vote.
Ahh the old “wasted vote ploy. By “wasted” you mean did not vote for the winner? That means that almost half the country have “wasted” their votes in the last three presidential elections.
The only way one can “waste” their vote is for them to stay home on election day.
It is not a “ploy” it is political reality.
Does this state really want to get LePaged again?
Perhaps, if the majority party in Maine, The Democrats, actively supported THEIR candidate, Dill would become U.S. Senator Dill.
two years in the state senate evidently qualifies you to be president why not a U.S. senator? And mark is right,not voting at all is the only way to waste a vote.
And, sadly, because Dill is all those things you say she is, she hasn’t a hope in this sad state topheavy with so many spineless passive-aggressive losers. Mainers like weak, fake and anything but progressive politicians. Simply look at all the two-faced glasses of water Maine has sent to Washington over the years. Pingree is a rare exception and Dill, were she by some miracle to win, would be an even greater exception. No, Maine, it looks like you deserve a corporate snake oil salesman from Virginia as a replacement for tired Sen. Snowejob.
The DNC is making a mistake on several counts:
If King is truly INDEPENDENT, the DNC is missing an opportunity to pull him their way.
If King is truly DEMOCRAT, the DNC is missing an opportunity to guarantee his support when elected.
I’m hopeful King truly means what he says about being an Independant, in both thought and deed, takes all this as a slap in the face from the DNC, and truly brings Independance to the job.
I do know that after having to deal with Disgusta for nearly forty years, King was the best Governor I worked with and surrounded himself with the highest-qualified staff and Commissioners. His bringing Workers Comp into the 21st Century for fellow small business owners, alone, was worth most else.
Harry Reid needs to get out of Dodge and I’m hopeful Angus will prove just the man to lead the posse! King’s up to the task, and doesn’t need the job in Congress as far too many appear to do.
Dill won’t poll as high as that other Democrat loser, Libby Mitchell. Just points out the weaknesses of the Primaries here in Maine.
King is a Democrat. Do you honestly think that he WON’T caucus with the Dems?
Poor Dill. Nobody likes her. Not even her own party can stand her, and she cannot understand why. Might want to look in the mirror and see what it is that turns everybody off Cindy.
Sounds like Romney!
I have never in my life seen such a sham.. The DNC needs to support their candidate.. what a disgrace for the party. What the heck is wrong with you people!!!! Dill will stick by the party platform where Angus will stick to his wallet and sit on the fence waiting for windfarm money from whomever is in control of the purse strings….. Angus has no loyalities.
Slam the republican and not directly support or criticize the other two. They are just putting themselves in a position to get king to caucus with them if he wins. Dill is in the bag for them anyway,and they know it.The senate race is gonna be tight,one or two seats could swing the balance of power either way and the dems desperately want their power back. I still remember nancy pelosi walking around with that giant gavel and flying around on a taxpayer funded 757.They will do anything to get control again
ROMNEY / RYAN 2012 !!!
Amen!
Cindy put one in her keester when she climbed on board the Roxanne Express and dragged the entire Maine Democratic Party right along with her. Moderate Democrat’s have long ago abandoned Dill when she came out and started ranting and raving the ‘Save the Environment’ chant to the delight and glee of the radical left. She completely missed the boat when the E-W Highway issue came out and she decided to hide by saying nothing, one way or the other, regarding the Highway. And what’s worse is that she’s completely silent on any type of economic or business start-up or development when political leadership is seen as a crucial factor in bringing business’s to Maine. She has about 50 days to make her mark, Given her current track record, it’s time to ricky-tic now and quit waiting for her opponent’s to make a mistake.
Gee! Another group from “away” pouring money into a Maine political contest! Does anyone want to bet how much outrage this group will draw – or will they draw a bye since it is the DNC?
So much for party loyalty. For shame, DNC.
If I were Dill, I’d have on my campaign signs… “I’m THE Democrat!”