Maine’s elections are getting crazy expensive. Where does the money go?

$2.2 Million Attack Ad Against Troy Jackson Highlights Maine’s Out‑of‑State Election Spending

In the middle of Maine’s 2026 campaign season, the most expensive political advertisement yet aired on the state’s airwaves was a 30‑second attack spot aimed at Democratic Senate nominee Troy Jackson. Produced by the pro‑Susan Collins super‑PAC Pine Tree Results PAC, the ad cost $2.2 million, according to a federal campaign‑finance filing. Pine Tree Results PAC provided the narrative and creative direction, while SRCP Media Inc., a conservative advertising firm headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, created the spot and bought airtime on Maine television stations.

The ad opens with a narrator’s voiceover, “Augusta politician Troy Jackson: While his family cashed in, you paid the price.” The narrator then quotes excerpts from old news stories and accuses the former Maine Senate president of contributing to higher taxes, a classic attack‑ad strategy. At the end of the spot the narrator says, “Pine Tree Results PAC is responsible for the content of this advertising.” The ad was bought by the campaign of Republican Senator Susan Collins, who is facing Jackson in the race to replace the retiring Senator.

Maine’s 2026 ballot is crowded. In addition to the U.S. Senate contest, voters will decide on a U.S. House seat, an open governor’s office, and several state‑level positions. Campaigns and outside groups have poured more than $300 million into the cycle, according to tracking service AdImpact. Yet only a small fraction of that money is spent by Maine‑based companies. Over half the spending is channeled to Washington‑D.C. consultants and firms such as SRCP Media, and only about 8 % of the total goes to Maine businesses.

OpenSecrets reports that 83 % of donations to Maine candidates in the 2026 federal cycle came from donors outside the state. When the money is finally spent, it mostly flows to firms in Virginia, Maryland, the District of Columbia and Pennsylvania. In federal races, only 3.4 % of the money was spent inside Maine, and a meager 0.2 % of advertising costs went to Maine‑based vendors. State races have a slightly higher Maine‑spending share: roughly 20 % of spending on state‑level advertising goes to local firms, while 37 % goes to the capital or bordering states. The majority of Maine’s political ad dollars therefore leave the state for services that can reach voters across a wider area.

“Campaigns can only grow so big before they run out of places to spend money,” said Ben Coolidge Gagnon, a veteran of two Maine gubernatorial campaigns. “More consultants.” Gagnon, who has worked on Mike Michaud’s 2014 gubernatorial campaign, the Maine Democratic Party and Janet Mills’s first gubernatorial run, points to the 2020 Senate campaign of Senator Sara Gideon, which still has millions of dollars left in its bank account. He notes that the small number of statewide contests in Maine—two U.S. Senate seats and the governorship—means that there are few high‑profile opportunities for local firms to build a reputation, so political operatives hop from state to state to follow large campaigns and large money.

Political consultant Richard Schlackman, who has spent several decades in campaign advertising nationwide, said that spending tens of millions of dollars across state lines is normal. “If things are going well, your side gives you more money to keep it going well. If things are going bad, your side gives you money to destroy the other side,” he said. He added that D.C. consultants often control a campaign’s messaging, citing a recent fundraiser where Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton complained that he “felt less control over the campaign and the issues that mattered” because the messaging was coming “all from D.C.”.

Consultants typically earn a percentage of the ad’s total cost. “Fifteen percent of the ad buys… you’re gonna say 10, so why don’t we just say 13?” the narrator in an early 2000s television series The West Wing says, a line that Schlackman uses to illustrate how consultants can negotiate a higher fee for the same ad placement.

In Maine, the Maine Broadcasters Association reports that local radio and television stations benefit from the political advertising dollars. Tim Moore, the association’s CEO, said the money keeps stations afloat, though it can be uneven from year to year. He noted that “stations sometimes have to hand over profits to their owners, wherever they may be.”

New‑York‑based consultant Roy Moskowitz said Maine is inexpensive to advertise in, but that low cost has limited the number of local media firms. “Maine only has two congressional districts and three TV markets, so customers get the same channels and ads,” he said. He also warned that streaming services such as Hulu and Apple TV, as well as social‑media platforms, are becoming the most effective venues for political advertising, and that this shift could pull even more spending out of the state.

The Maine campaign‑finance guidebook recommends that campaigns list the final vendor when reporting expenditures, but many groups only record the first payee—the consulting firm—because doing otherwise would reveal where the money ultimately goes. “They want to give the least amount of information as they legally have to,” Gagnon said. “There’s a competitive advantage of people knowing where the buys are going.”

As the 2026 elections approach, the $2.2 million ad spot