Politics
Our political journalists are based in the Maine State House and have deep source networks across the partisan spectrum in communities all over the state. Their coverage aims to cut through major debates and probe how officials make decisions. Read more Politics coverage here.
Jason and January Furchak, owners of Holy Cannoli in Waterville, enforce a hard line of neutrality in the bakery, often turning down requests for rallies, meetings and issue-based signs from politicians and organizers of all stripes.
They’re not neutral about their baked goods, aggressively advertising on WABI to reach hundreds of thousands of potential customers on top of highlighting their offerings to tens of thousands of followers on social media.
Their TV advertising push forces Holy Cannoli to compete, just like car dealerships, shops, colleges and professional services firms across the state, with an onslaught of political advertising in a heated midterm election season.
Led by a U.S. Senate race between Republican incumbent Susan Collins and Democrat Troy Jackson expected to generate almost $400 million in ad spending, this year’s deluge of ads means fewer slots available and higher prices for local businesses. Rates have skyrocketed for the outside groups that are dominating the Senate race.
“They limit our number of air spots for the next 40 days leading up to Election Day,” Jason Furchak said of the stations. “So I get a little less bang for my buck.”
That dynamic is playing out across the state, with businesses finding alternative ways to reach customers at a time when political campaigns and outside groups are pouring millions of dollars into the state’s TV stations and other media, and to their out-of-state corporate owners to rack up prime advertising real estate for their candidates.
In Bangor, outside groups have paid as much as $7,500 for a single 30-second ad during WABI’s 6 p.m. newscast this fall, according to filings with the Federal Communications Commission. That compares with $3,000 for a spot in the same newscast at a similar time in 2024.
Candidates have paid about the same as in 2024, since federal law requires stations to sell them airtime at their lowest rate in the 60 days before an election, a discount that doesn’t apply to super PACs and other outside groups.
Businesses need to compete with both groups. Elizabeth Sutherland, CEO of the Bangor-based marketing firm Sutherland Weston, said the month before a primary and October “tend to be real trigger points.” In both 2024 and this year, “the season where advertising inventory is tight and pricing is really expensive is lengthening,” she said.
“We could see the writing on the wall, and we got a little more aggressive about making decisions earlier in the year, so we didn’t have to fight for things now,” she said of her team and their clients, a mix of professional service and direct-to-consumer sales businesses.
New business owners, she said, should consider holding off on traditional TV advertising until after Election Day, and instead “get creative” with more ads online, print, signs or through local chambers of commerce. An additional factor for advertisers is that they may not want to run ads squeezed between two negative spots from competing sides, Sutherland said.
“You can’t escape it,” Brent Littlefield, a Republican strategist who works for former Gov. Paul LePage, said, noting Maine has grown increasingly competitive politically, and on the airwaves, over the last 15 years. “Especially in the current day with people moving to various forms of entertainment, local broadcast TV stations and the station owners see election time as a major cash infusion.”
Experts noted it’s challenging to compare the 2026 cycle to 2024 or 2020, because of the variety of media options and shifting rules and disclosure requirements on social media. Campaigns execute different strategies across broadcast, cable and streaming platforms as well as on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat.
Ads on TV still often dominate discussion, with a spike in demand and fewer slots available. Sutherland said sales managers at local TV stations work with advertisers to ensure the stations don’t lose business with regular clients after the wild election season.
The Furchaks, who have owned the Holy Cannoli since 2019, aren’t seeing higher prices this election cycle because they’re on an annual plan for a certain number of 30- or 15-second spots. WABI let them know months ago that they’ll be on the air less during the busy Senate race as well as the competitive 2nd Congressional District and governor’s races.
The station then makes up for it on the other side of the election, airing more than the usual number of spots for the bakery around Thanksgiving and Christmas. The grab-and-go style of the business benefits from customers who may be 15 minutes away or as far as Bar Harbor.
“They have a viewership of 300,000 that’s just north and east of us, hitting about a third of the state,” he said.
Emily Cain, a Democratic strategist who said she saw back-to-back ads for the Senate, gubernatorial and 2nd Congressional District race during a recent football game, said the constant stream is “the nature of things” every election. That’s because campaigns know they work.
“In today’s short attention span world, if you’re not showing up everywhere, you’re missing an opportunity to communicate with people,” she said.
BDN writer Michael Shepherd contributed to this report.