Box –



Allen campaign travel Total travel spending – $40,353.83

Jan. 1, 2008 – June 10, 2008

Airplanes – Car service/cabs – Trains-

Total tickets – 75 Total trips – 33 Total trips – 15

Total spent – $30,501 Total spent – $7,506 Total spent – $2,346.00

Avg. ticket – $406 Avg. ride – $227 Avg. ticket – $156.40

Highest ticket – $2,805 Highest – $1,206 Highest- $934

Lowest ticket – $30 Lowest – $10 Lowest – $6

Collins campaign travel Total travel spending – $5,875.00

Jan. 1, 2008 – June 10, 2008

Airplanes – Car service/cabs – Trains –

Total tickets – 11 Total trips – 1 Total trips – 0

Total spent – $5,470 Total spent – $405 Total spent – $0

Avg. cost – $497 Avg. cost – $405 Avg. cost – $0

Highest – $2,026 Highest – $405 Highest – $0

Lowest – $17 Lowest – $405 Lowest – $0

*All data compiled from FEC.gov, looking at the campaign committees “Tom Allen for Senate” and “Collins for Senator”

Campaign travel: Allen outspends Collins

While both Republican Sen. Susan Collins and Democrat Tom Allen have raised more than $900,000 each from Maine residents in the U.S. Senate race, the amounts raised out of state differ widely.

Collins has raised $2.4 million to Allen’s $1.6 million in out-of-state donations, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonprofit, non-partisan organization based in Washington, D.C.

The candidates’ travel spending also differs widely.

Allen, a six-term congressman from Maine’s 1st District, has spent more than $40,000 in campaign funds on travel between Jan. 1 and June 10, to Collins’ $6,000, according to a Sun Journal analysis of their campaign committee filings with the Federal Election Commission.

Allen spokeswoman Carol Andrews said the campaign doesn’t discuss its nonpublic schedule in detail.

“I’m happy to tell you in any federal level campaign it is customary, with the expense level you incur running a modern campaign, to have to travel quite a lot to raise money and have meetings,” Andrews said.

Andrews said the trips paid for by the campaign were not all made by Allen, rather various staff members as well as the congressman.

“In any campaign of this magnitude, you have to strike a balance in public appearances, raising money and of course your duties in Washington. Sen. Collins is balancing all of those same issues,” Andrews said.

The approximately $40,000 spent on travel from Jan. 1 to June 10 by the Allen campaign is less than 1 percent of their total remaining cash on hand.

Kevin Kelley, spokesman for the Collins’ campaign, said the senator has been to New York, Massachusetts, California, Tennessee, Florida and Missouri since Jan. 1 for fundraising events, as well as several others held in Maine.

“You do have to spend money to raise money,” said Sandy Maisel, a government professor at Colby College. “It’s not possible to raise the kind of money that both candidates will need to get their message out just raising money in Maine, so that’s why you’re seeing a lot of travel.”

But Maisel said the difference between their spending was insignificant in terms of judging how the campaigns are going.

“The story that I see from the fundraising numbers right now is that Sen. Collins continues to have a lead in the amount of money and she can run as strong a campaign as she wants,” Maisel said. “Congressman Allen has raised a competitive amount of money, but not as much as she has.”

Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, said the money spent on travel wasn’t surprising.

“This is a Senate race and it’s big, we’re talking millions of dollars overall, raised and spent,” she said. “Given that this is Maine and not New York, these numbers are in line with what you’d expect.”

Krumholz said races in states without a lot of wealth or a high population, like Maine, often result in candidates raising more from outside the state than inside.

Collins currently leads in the money race with more than $5.1 million in cash on hand, about $2 million more than Allen, and the two candidates have raised more than $11 million combined, according to the most recent FEC reports.

Aided by national fundraising clearing houses Moveon.org and Actblue.com, 84 percent of Allen’s funds have come from individuals, and just 10 percent from political action committees, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Collins has received 57 percent of her money from individuals and 36 percent from PACs, according to the group.

Maisel said because Mainers won’t be completely tuned in to the race until later in the year, the trips made earlier in the election cycle were worth the effort.

“(The candidates) are spending their time exactly as they should,” he said. “Sen. Collins is continuing to appear throughout the state as she has done since she was first elected and Congressman Allen is spending a lot of time, particularly in the 2nd District where he isn’t as well known.”

Both camps said their candidates will be in Maine for nearly all of Congress’ August recess, the only exception being Allen’s attendance of the Democratic National Convention in Denver. Collins is not attending the Republican National Convention being held in Minneapolis.

Despite all the fundraising, what really matters is the voters, Krumholz said.

“You need to get the money to reach out to the voters, but it’s the voters who decide,” she said.

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