The advertising war over Maine’s swing congressional seat is a wild one.
The race between U.S. Rep. Jared Golden of Maine’s 2nd District and former U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin is the main driver behind the $14 million in ads set to air statewide in the two weeks before Election Day, according to AdImpact data. Our state is by far the smallest one to see this level of traffic.
There are a few reasons for this. The first is that the 2nd District rematch has always been among the 30 or so races in the House chamber deemed as toss-ups. Another is that the national map has moved further toward Republicans in the last few weeks despite Golden hanging onto polling leads here. Perhaps thinking that he is one of their more durable toss-ups, Democrats are moving money in to counteract a recent Republican advantage on the air.
Outside groups that now dominate ad spending cannot formally coordinate with candidates or parties, but there are all sorts of ways around that, from posting B-roll for those groups to use in ads to specifically laying out the claims they want highlighted at key times in the campaign.
You do not have to look any further than the party campaign websites. As of about two weeks ago, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee told groups that they should be highlighting Poliquin’s anti-abortion record in the Bangor and Portland markets “excluding Fox News viewers” and especially to abortion-rights voters on YouTube. In the older and more socially conservative Presque Isle market, they want Medicare and Social Security highlighted.
Their counterpart goes into detail as well. The National Republican Congressional Committee recently published a 12-page backup document laying out how to continue linking Golden with a group that “red-listed” the Maine lobster due to sustainability concerns linked to endangered whales. (Poliquin hammered Golden for taking a 2020 contribution from the group’s CEO, but the congressman recently proposed defunding the group.)
This is done through U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Massachusetts, who made a short-lived 2020 presidential run and helped recruit Golden and other military veterans ahead of the 2018 race. He has been a staunch defender of the right whale and has sparred with Maine’s lobster industry over federal rules that are now hanging over the fishery and this year’s campaign. The document notes Moulton’s financial support for Golden as well as his summer trip to Maine to campaign for the congressman.
As you might expect, it does not note that Golden has been on the other side of him on lobstering issues. That is how the ad sausage is made. Now you will be prepared when you see these ads against him and his opponent.
