OAKLAND, Maine – Former Maine State Treasurer Bruce Poliquin told reporters Monday he raised nearly $148,000 in the final quarter of 2013 and will report the Federal Election Commission a cash-on-hand balance of nearly $300,000.
“Since Poliquin entered the race just before Labor Day, his campaign has received nearly $370,000 from 384 donations ranging from $5 to the maximum allowed $2,600 per person,” the campaign wrote in a press release. “The campaign has received donations from every single county in the 2nd District.”
According the Poliquin camp, more than $116,000 in donations came online — a fact the campaign attributes to its strong digital media presence. Matt Hutson, Poliquin’s campaign manager, also said roughly $54,000 of the total includes donations from the candidate.
With former GOP candidate Blaine Richardson’s Jan. 20 decision to drop out of the Republican primary and run as an independent, Poliquin became the heads up challenger to front-runner and former state Senate President Kevin Raye of Perry.
In Raye’s most recent bid for the Second Congressional District seat recently vacated by U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud, he lost to the Democrat 40 percent to 55.7 percent.
Poliquin has also made unsuccessful bids for public office including a 2010 campaign for governor and 2012 run for U.S. Senate.
In the third quarter of 2013, Raye reported raising more than $90,000 in a relatively short time frame. The Raye campaign has not released fundraising totals for the most recent quarter and is not required to do so until the end of January.
Shouldn’t the byline say, Georgetown? You know where unctuous carpetbagger Bruce had his oceanfront property in the tree growth program so he only paid a fraction of taxes…Talk about abusing the system. Maine will be much better off once Mr. Poliquin goes the way of that other GOP carpetbagger, Liz Chaney!