OneMaine, the organization promoting centrist political candidates, has entered the highly competitive state Senate race in District 11.
Independent expenditures from the Maine Ethics Commission show that the OneMaine political action committee will spend over $13,000 on mailers supporting independent incumbent Sen. Dick Woodbury, of Yarmouth. Woodbury is facing a tough re-election fight against Republican Chris Tyll, who has also won the endorsement of U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe.
Snowe is featured prominently in an ad supporting Tyll. It’s only the second ad that she’s appeared in during the election.
The OneMaine expenditure marks the second outside group that has entered the race to support Woodbury. The incumbent has been besieged by over $70,000 in outside spending, most of it negative, by Republican and tea party groups. The spending is a problem for Woodbury, a Maine Clean Elections Act candidate who can only spend $20,454 on his re-election effort.
Another pro-Woodbury PAC run by Verrill Dana attorney William Harwood has also entered the race with mailers opposing Tyll. The opposition mailers haven’t surfaced yet, but it’s likely that they’ll echo the current critique of Tyll, who was involved in a failed effort to uphold the Republican repeal of Maine’s same day voter registration law.
The OneMaine expenditure is one of several by its political action committee. The organization is head by 2010 independent gubernatorial candidate Eliot Cutler. Cutler and Angus King, the independent candidate running for the U.S. Senate, have also attended campaign events on Woodbury’s behalf.
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