The money race for the Blaine House, in six charts

Independent gubernatorial candidate Eliot Cutler brought in the most cash between May and July — mostly from his own pocket — but he’s also spent the most so far. Cutler lags both incumbent Republican Gov. Paul LePage and Democrat Mike Michaud for the cash their campaigns had on hand as of the latest reporting period. The Michaud campaign had just more than $1 million and LePage’s had about $914,000 as of July 15. Cutler had about $530,822, according to contribution and expenditure reports filed by a midnight deadline.

Taking a closer look at the contribution side, the same trends that have played out in fundraising so far continued at a faster clip from May to July. That is, Cutler put in about $588,000 of his own funds, Michaud raised nearly half of his contributions from out-of-state donors and LePage’s contributions from commercial sources continued to make up about a quarter of his amount raised.

Compare that with the contribution sources for each campaign since they began.

While the in-state and out-of-state representation of contributions is skewed a little because of Cutler’s self-financing, which is tied to his office in Portland, it’s still clear that fundraising has so far focused on key towns in southern Maine. For contributions by geography, Augusta and Bangor are outliers in ranking fifth and sixth for contributions to any of the three candidates’ campaigns since they started.

Outside of Maine, Michaud has a clear fundraising lead. About 35 percent, or $693,000, of the congressman’s funds have come from out of state, mostly from Washington D.C. That compares with about 19 percent of out-of-state funds for Cutler (again, keeping in mind the self-financing) and 16 percent for LePage.

And here’s a more detailed look at just where those out-of-state contributions are originating. Analyze the geographical reach of each candidate using the candidate filter in the view.

Darren Fishell

About Darren Fishell

Darren is a Portland-based reporter for the Bangor Daily News writing about the Maine economy and business. He's interested in putting economic data in context and finding the stories behind the numbers.