King continues to raise more than 3 times as much as his Senate rivals

Fundraising in Maine’s U.S. Senate race has picked up since the end of May, and independent former Gov. Angus King continues to outpace his rivals in the race to replace outgoing Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe.

Campaign finance reports for the most recent fundraising period, May 24 to June 30, show King took in $468,000 in contributions from individuals and political action committees. That figure brings his fundraising total to $897,000 since he started his campaign in March.

Campaigns faced a July 15 deadline for submitting finance reports to the Secretary of the Senate, which are later made available through the Federal Election Commission. And the numbers became available days after another poll was released showing King has maintained a commanding lead over Republican Charlie Summers and Democrat Cynthia Dill.

Summers, Maine’s Secretary of State, attracted $149,000 in contributions for his Senate bid between May 24 and June 30, bringing his total to $239,000 since he entered the contest in March. Summers’ campaign said $122,000 in contributions came in during the two weeks after Summers won a six-way primary for the Republican nomination last month.

State Sen. Cynthia Dill, the Democratic nominee, raised $66,000 between April 1 and June 30, bringing her fundraising total to $91,000 since the start of her campaign. Dill added about $48,000 to her campaign account in the weeks following her win in a four-way Democratic primary on June 12.

King spent $226,000 during the five-week period covered by his 258-page report, May 24 to June 30, and ended the period with $503,000 on hand. The campaign owes King about $38,000.

Some highlights from King’s donor list are Bernard Osher, a Bowdoin alumnus and major California-based philanthropist; Tom’s of Maine co-founders Tom and Kate Chapell, who operate Rambler’s Way Farm in Kennebunk; and billionaire New York investor Andrew Tisch, co-chairman of the Loew’s Corp., whose holdings include hotel, insurance, oil and gas drilling and distributions businesses.

The former governor’s contributions listed $55,000 from political action committees, including $10,000 from the committee of the American Association for Justice, formerly the Association of Trial Lawyers of America; $5,000 from the Credit Union National Association’s committee; $5,000 from the committee representing the consulting and financial advising firm Deloitte; $5,000 from Google’s political action committee; $5,000 from the United Brotherhood of Carpenters’ committee; and $5,000 from Spectra Energy Corp., a Texas-based natural gas company.

King’s spending was related mostly to campaign operations, but the campaign also recorded some spending for online advertising with the Bangor Daily News, Facebook.com and Google.

Summers’ contributions during the reporting period included more than $50,000 in contributions from political action committees. Most of those contributions came in $5,000 chunks from committees controlled by Republican members of the U.S. Senate, who hope to welcome Summers as a colleague next year.

Summers received donations from committees controlled by Maine Sen. Susan Collins, New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte, Nebraska Sen. Mike Johanns, Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, Texas Sen. John Cornyn, Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch and Wyoming Sen. Mike Enzi.

The bulk of Summers’ $169,000 in spending came before he clinched the Republican nomination on June 12. The campaign spent about $100,000 on television ads that aired before the primary and more than $40,000 on direct mail. At the end of June, the campaign spent more than $7,000 on polling.

The Summers campaign had $119,000 on hand at the end of June and owed Summers $55,000 for a loan he made in the weeks leading up to the June 12 primary.

Dill, who reported fundraising and spending for April 1 to June 30, spent $47,000 during the second quarter and ended the period with $28,000 on hand.

Dill attracted the support of two Maine state Senate colleagues — Democrats Justin Alfond of Portland and Phil Bartlett of Gorham — and 1st District Congresswoman Chellie Pingree and her billionaire husband, Donald Sussman. The Democrat also collected contributions from Robert and Joseph Baldacci, brothers of former Gov. John Baldacci, and Roxanne Quimby, the Burt’s Bees co-founder who offered to donate 70,000 acres of her land near Baxter State Park to the federal government for a national park.

Dill had only one political action committee contribution: $1,000 from the Mill to the Hill PAC controlled by 2nd District Congressman Mike Michaud.

This reporting period also marked the first for which independents Steve Woods and Andrew Ian Dodge filed campaign finance reports.

Woods’ report, which covers April 1 to June 30, shows the Yarmouth Town Council chairman and business owner is mostly self-funding his campaign effort.

Woods took in $320 in contributions from others while loaning his campaign nearly $54,000 and donating $15,000 of his own money to the effort. Woods spent $48,000 during the reporting period and had nearly $21,000 on hand on June 30.

Dodge, who originally had planned to challenge Snowe as a Republican before Snowe announced she wouldn’t seek re-election, said he also crossed the $5,000 threshold that requires a campaign finance filing. Dodge said Monday he’s raised almost $1,700 and has $390 on hand.