WASHINGTON — GOP Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine had more than $3.2 million banked as of Sept. 30, according to her campaign.

Snowe’s campaign says it will report raising $792,305 and spending $320,716 during the third quarter.

The fundraising performance shows that Snowe continues to stockpile money at a vigorous pace in anticipation of both primary and general election challenges next year as she seeks a fourth term in the Senate.

With the economy still sputtering and voters nationwide registering anger with incumbents, the 2012 election threatens to be rocky for many lawmakers facing reelection, but Snowe currently is not on many analysts’ lists of endangered incumbents.

Scott D’Amboise, one of two tea party-affiliated GOP primary challengers, raised “six figures,” but will not have his third-quarter totals until later this week, said Tyler Harber, a D’Amboise campaign consultant. But as of June 30, D’Amboise’s campaign collected less than $142,000 and had just over $111,000 on hand, according to his FEC report. Harber said the third-quarter total will surpass what D’Amboise took in during the second quarter.

Two Maine Democrats, state Rep. Jon Hinck of Portland and former Secretary of State Matt Dunlap of Old Town, are contemplating making a run at Snowe, setting up a potential Democratic Party primary to decide who takes on Snowe in the 2012 general election.

“We had another strong quarter and are working hard to make sure we will have the resources needed to run the kind of tough, costly races that have unfortunately become the norm,” said Sharon Miller, a Snowe campaign aide.

The filing deadline for third-quarter campaign finance reports is not until Oct. 15, but it also has become the norm for candidates who raise a lot of money to tout their fundraising prowess ahead of the deadline.

Snowe raised less than $3.8 million during the entire 2006 campaign, where she ran unopposed in the primary and won 74 percent of the vote in the general election against Democrat Jean Hay Bright, who raised about $127,000, according to the “Almanac of American Politics.”

In 2008, Sen. Susan Collins raised more than $8 million in defeating former Rep. Tom Allen, D-1st, who raised nearly $6 million, with 61 percent of the vote and winning a third term.

D’Amboise is a health care technician and small business owner from Lisbon Falls who ran an unsuccessful congressional race in 2006 against Rep. Mike Michaud, D-2nd. Andrew Ian Dodge, a freelance writer from Harpswell, also has said he will run in the GOP primary. Dodge had not yet raised enough money to warrant filing a campaign report during the first half of the year and it is not clear yet whether he will file a report for the third quarter.

MaineToday Media Washington Bureau Chief Jonathan Riskind can be contacted at 791-6280 or at: jriskind@mainetoday.com Twitter: Twitter.com/MaineTodayDC.

 

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