Two years ago, candidates in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District and independent expenditures from group seeking to influence the outcome spent about $30 million in a race won by incumbent Democrat Jared Golden.

This year, the money pouring into the race will likely outpace the spending in 2022.

It’s hard to say how much has already been spent, let alone how much more will be dumped on the district as Republicans and Democrats vie for one of the closest races in the nation.

To get an idea, on Sept. 17 alone, $880,000 worth of negative advertising was declared in Federal Election Commission filings, spread almost evenly between groups attacking Golden and groups assailing Republican Austin Theriault.

Both sides have billionaire backers throwing money into efforts to win.

The candidates themselves are prohibited from having any role in what political action committees spend or what they choose to do with their money. These PACs and Super PACs provide nearly all of the negative advertising that bombards voters on television, radio and online.

The candidates themselves are also raising money, but in much smaller quantities that are more strictly regulated. Their donors are listed on forms regularly filed with the FEC.

At the June 30 filing deadline, Golden had raised $4.7 million for the race and had $3.3 million of it on hand to spend.

Theriault, at the same time, had raised $1.8 million and had half of it available to use in his campaign treasury.