Maine will see stars this election year, thanks to a presidential race and a crucial contest for the U.S. Senate.

Celebrities have been raising money for politicians for as long as politicians have craved power, recognition and friends with deep pockets (yes, forever).

This election cycle in Maine is no different, with a variety of singers, athletes and authors slated to volunteer their time and fundraising abilities on behalf of local candidates.

And by “variety,” so far we mean Bonnie Raitt (singer), Smokin’ Joe Frazier (former boxer) and Stephen King, Tess Gerritsen and John Grisham (authors). Although, the authors chose to postpone due to some flak King caught for … getting a little too political.

Nonetheless, Raitt is scheduled for a concert tonight in Portland to benefit Democratic Senate candidate Tom Allen and Frazier made an appearance at the end of May to raise funds for Republican 1st District congressional candidate Charlie Summers.

Celebrity fundraising is not new to Maine, says Democratic fundraiser Tony Buxton.

“Lewiston has been visited by every name Democrat in the last 50 years, beginning with John F. Kennedy in 1960,” he said. “There have been scores of surrogates over the years, virtually every Kennedy, every Kennedy relative, every Carter and many actors and actresses.”

During the last presidential campaign in 2004, singer-songwriter Carole King knocked on doors in Lewiston to encourage support for the Democratic John Kerry-John Edwards presidential ticket.

Buxton said Mainers are not usually treated to public fundraising events like the Raitt concert, but said plenty of stars have opened their homes and their friends’ homes to help raise money for candidates.

“The Bonnie Raitt-Tom Allen concert is a great event, but by no means a common event,” he said. “I do summer (fundraising) events for the party; did them in 2004 and 2006. Glenn Close lives here, so she’s done some events. I did one at her house for (John) Baldacci. Meg Ryan has done one. She’s a friend of Richard Rockefeller’s … she did an event at his home in Falmouth in 2004.”

Gary Merrill and Bette Davis

Paul Mills, a Farmington lawyer and long-time Maine political analyst, said Maine has a rich history of politicians rubbing elbows with movie stars and the like.

“Gary Merrill not only acted as a surrogate for other candidates, particularly (Nelson) Rockefeller, but sought himself public nomination for Congress in the 1st District primary in 1968,” Mills said. “He didn’t win.”

Merrill, originally from Connecticut and a Bowdoin College graduate, had a film and television career spanning nearly four decades, beginning in 1944. He owned a home in Cape Elizabeth where he lived for a time with his wife of 10 years, actress Bette Davis.

Davis, married to Merrill from 1950 to 1960, was also politically active in Maine. The feisty star actually served as a Democratic delegate from Cape Elizabeth in 1956, according to Sun Journal archives.

“Naturally we’ve had some summer residents who are fundraisers, particularly in the Bar Harbor area, but ordinarily the fundraising focus of celebrity America is of course Beverly Hills or the Upper East side, Greenwich Village and that type of thing,” Mills said. “So, a lot of them, even though they breeze in and out of Maine, don’t normally use Maine as a fundraising base.”

The trio of top authors – King, Grisham and Gerritsen – had been slated for a book reading to raise funds for Allen in June, but postponed the event after King made controversial comments about literacy and the military while speaking to students in the Library of Congress earlier in the spring. King told the students to be sure and learn how to read or be wary of their job prospects.

“If you don’t (learn how to read), then you’ve got the Army, Iraq, I don’t know, something like that,” said King.

After a nationwide outburst, King withdrew from the fundraiser because he “didn’t want to be a distraction.”

The event has not been rescheduled.

Bonnie Raitt and 60 senators

Mills said this particular election season is ripe for appearances from committed Democratic fundraising stars such as Raitt and Grisham, who have given nearly $200,000 each to Democratic political causes since the early 1990s, according to Federal Election Commission records.

“It’s particularly targeted; there’s much more ardent national partisanship about some of the local Senate races than there once had been, say a generation ago,” Mills said.

Mills said voters nationwide, including very high-profile ones, are looking more at a candidate’s party identification rather than the individual.

Annie Heller-Gutwillig, a Raitt spokeswoman, said there’s no doubt about the musician’s motivations.

“This being an election year, Bonnie has been prioritizing fundraising for Democratic candidates for the Senate because she finds it crucial to get more Democrats in the Senate,” Heller-Gutwillig said. “Right now the Democrats have 51, but 51 isn’t enough. So that’s Bonnie’s priority, to get to 60.”

Heller-Gutwillig said Raitt looked for the most contested Senate races across the country and at her pre-existing summer tour schedule and tried to schedule events for races along her route.

“So we looked at Tom Allen in Maine and Jeanne Shaheen in New Hampshire … and they happen to just be on the way,” she said, adding that beyond just being Democrats the candidates’ position on three issues – the war in Iraq, climate change and health care – were also important to Raitt.

“We took a closer look at the candidates in those races to make sure their politics and policies aligned with Bonnie’s,” Heller-Gutwillig said.

Heller-Gutwillig said Raitt has so far campaigned for or scheduled events on behalf of Democratic senatorial candidates Mark Begich in Alaska, Al Franken in Minnesota and Scott Kleen in Nebraska, in addition to Allen and Shaheen.

Notoriety a double-edged sword

On the Republican side, boxing great Smokin’ Joe Frazier paired an appearance for Summers with a visit to the Togus Veterans Administration Hospital in Augusta. Frazier stumped for Summers because of a friendship with a member of Summers’ finance committee, according to the campaign.

However, star power alone won’t guarantee victory. Just ask state Sen. Ethan Strimling of Portland, who was a candidate in the Democratic primary for Maine’s 1st District congressional seat.

Strimling had Matt Servitto, an actor best known for playing an FBI agent in HBO’s television show “The Sopranos,” at a campaign event last June. The two men attended acting school together and each was best man at the other’s wedding. But Strimling was crushed by his competition and placed fourth in the race, despite help from his famous friend.

Mills said candidates using stars often run into another danger – that voters might not be a fan of the celebrity involved.

“People have to be careful because oftentimes these entertainers … may be popular with some people but could be unpopular with others,” he said. “I may like Bonnie Raitt, but the next person may be more culturally conservative and might turn the radio dial when they hear her, because she is identified with a pseudo-granola type of appeal.”

Mills said he was just giving an example.

“I imagine Bonnie Raitt probably has more fans than adversaries,” he said.