Democratic gubernatorial candidate Janet Mills raised almost $800,000 in campaign contributions in the last two months, more than twice the amount that Republican Shawn Moody raised in the same period, according to the latest campaign finance reports, filed Tuesday night.
Mills has raised a total of $1.8 million for the race, to Moody’s $1.4 million. Moody raised $367,000 in the last two months, according to reports filed with the state ethics commission for the reporting period from July 18 to Sept. 18.
Independent gubernatorial candidate Alan Caron is continuing to pump his own money into the race, while independent Terry Hayes broke the $1 million mark in Clean Elections funding, according to the reports.
Moody and Mills, the state’s attorney general, were in a statistical dead heat in the race, with 39 percent each, according to a Suffolk University poll conducted in early August. Hayes and Caron trailed at 4 percent and 3 percent, respectively.
Tuesday was the deadline for all state candidates to file campaign finance reports – six weeks before Election Day.
Tuesday’s filings show that both Mills and Moody still have about $400,000 on hand to spend in the final weeks of the campaign.
The race is also attracting millions in outside spending, mostly by Democrats.
Moody, who runs a successful chain of autobody repair shops, has put just over $500,000 of his own money into his campaign. Overall, Moody has raised $1.4 million in contributions – including $1,000 this period from both Gov. Paul LePage and his wife, Ann LePage.
Caron loaned his campaign $240,000 in this filing period, bringing the total amount of personal loans from him and his wife to $725,000.
Caron raised only about $4,500 in cash contributions in the most recent filing period, with a total of about $45,000 raised.
Hayes – the only candidate for governor who is using Maine’s public campaign finance system – reported another $260,000 in public funds for this period, for a total of $1.1 million in Clean Elections funding for the race.
About 6,800 voters have given her $5 Clean Elections contributions, bringing her total to $1,241,758.
Hayes, the state treasurer, reported total expenditures of about $1 million, leaving her with $211,571 cash on hand as of Sept. 18.
Caron, an economic development consultant, reported having about $200,000 cash on hand after spending about $578,000.
Noel K. Gallagher can be reached at 791-6387 or at:
Twitter: noelinmaine
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