Following the money in Maine's 2nd U.S. House District race

As regular readers have probably gathered, I'm doing a lot of the political finance coverage for the Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram and its sister papers. There's a fresh heap of data to explore, with both federal and Maine state candidates, PACs, and ballot committees having recently filed fresh returns.

Today's story in the Telegram looks at the money in Maine's Second Congressional District race. The general election will almost certainly pit state senate president Kevin Raye (a relatively moderate Republican) against incumbent Mike Michaud (a Blue Dog Democrat) in a rematch of their 2004 race. It's expected to be the most closely contested of the three federal races on the ballot in November. Article abstract: Michaud has a significant advantage accounted for by contributions from PACs, though that's not all that unusual for an incumbent,

The U.S. Senate is an arcane institution and, unlike the House, doesn't require candidates to post their campaign finance disclosures electronically, so there's usually a delay in gathering them all. (We asked all Senate candidates here in Maine to send us their full reports once they filed them, but only three -- Angus King, Charlie Summers, and Bill Schneider -- did so. Why anyone would refuse to provide a public document we'll all obtain shortly is something of a mystery but, rest assured, there will be attention paid to them later.)