On Wednesday, independent Senate candidate Angus King’s campaign sent out a fundraising email decrying how Republican outside money was trying to buy the Maine seat he’s running for. On Thursday, King will be in Washington, D.C., raising money at a reception held by a prominent Democratic lobbyist.
In the fundraising email on Wednesday, King’s wife, Mary Herman, wrote: “the recent coordinated assault by outside Republican groups is making an assumption that ought to offend us all: They are literally trying to buy this election, and they couldn’t care less about Maine.”
King is referring to groups like the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which are running a barrage of ads attacking him to help boost Charlie Summers.
The tactic appears to be working: Public Policy Polling released a poll Wednesday that showed King’s once formidable lead dwindling. He now leads Summers by a mere eight points – 43 percent to 35 percent. Democrat Cynthia Dill was at 14 percent. Her candidacy has been largely eclipsed by King, who most people believe would caucus with Democrats if elected. King has refused to say which party he would vote with should he win – though the fact that he is attending a fundraiser hosted by a prominent Democrat is perhaps some indication of his preferences.
But according to an invitation obtained by The Daily Caller, King will attend a fundraiser hosted by Democratic lobbyist Patrick Murphy on Thursday, where the minimum donation is $500 for a “Supporter,” $1,000 for a “Friend,” and $2,500 for a “PAC” level donation.
The Summers campaign hit King for hypocrisy.
“This race will be about who shares the priorities and principles of working class Mainers, and while Angus is raising big money in D.C. from the same ‘dark clouds’ he condemns when he’s here in Maine, Charlie is visiting with seniors here who are concerned about the $2.5 billion in Medicare cuts for Maine in the President’s health care law,” said Drew Brandewie, Summers’ spokesman.
King initially proposed a ban on Super PAC and special interest money, which he did not accept in his 1994 gubernatorial campaign. But ultimately he concluded that he would have to accept money to keep pace with the other candidates, who would not agree to forego those sources of funding.
“We have to fundraise with $1.7 million in negative, attack money against Angus,” Crystal Canney, King’s spokeswoman, told the Portland Press Herald. “And every single dollar that Angus raises is entirely disclosable. We are hot hiding from anybody.”
The King campaign did not respond to The Daily Caller’s request for comment.