Sawyer win sets spending record Republican’s race cost $153,000

BANGOR – Millionaire businessman W. Tom Sawyer reached deeper into his own pockets than any candidate in the state’s history to win a seat in Augusta, according to state election filings.

Sawyer, the retired president of Sawyer Environmental Services, spent $153,065.64 in the November race in which he bested term-limited state Rep. Jane Saxl for the Maine Senate seat representing Bangor and Veazie.

According to final campaign spending reports, due today at the state’s Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices, the Republican lent himself about $144,000 of the total.

In the hotly contested race, Sawyer, 51, spent about $134,000 on advertising, much of it in the final week of what many considered to be a campaign marked by last-minute negative advertising.

Sawyer, en route to Florida, could not be reached for comment Monday evening.

In previous interviews, Sawyer defended the frequency of the advertising and the amount of money used in the campaign. During his Senate bid, in which he knocked on more than 3,200 doors, Sawyer stressed the difficulty in unseating a longtime lawmaker who has a public record and public resources to reach voters.

“As an incumbent, she has eight years to get the message out; I have eight weeks,” Sawyer said in a November interview. “So I have to be abrupt on what I feel are bona fide philosophical issues.”

During the campaign, Saxl questioned Sawyer’s assertion that she voted to tax Social Security while a member of the House. In fact, while Saxl did vote to accept the committee’s report on the proposal, she ultimately voted against the bill.

Sawyer defended the claim, saying Saxl should have killed the bill at the first opportunity.

Saxl, who also used private funds in her campaign, upon hearing of Sawyer’s total, said she was disheartened by the role of “big bucks” in Maine politics.

“I thought I raised a lot of money, but that shows you what I know,” Saxl said Monday night. “I’m kind of saddened by it because it’s just really too much. I can think of a lot of things someone could have done with that money.”

In comparison, Saxl, 61, lent herself about $5,000 of the $30,000 spent on her campaign, she said.

Alison Smith, co-chairwoman of Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, also questioned the need for using so much money to win a seat that pays about $9,000 a year.

“It just seems crazy,” said Smith, whose organization spearheaded the Maine Clean Election Act, which provides public financing for candidates. “As someone running for office, you have to ask yourself that if your opponent has to outspend you by that much, what are they lacking as a candidate.

“But if name recognition is important, he was able to buy a lot of name recognition,” Smith said of Sawyer’s high-priced campaign. “But most candidates didn’t spend nearly that much to develop name recognition and support for their ideas.”

While Sawyer may have broken the record for the most money spent in a state campaign, he did not spend the most per vote.

The late Alton “Chuck” Cianchette, the chief executive at Cianbro Corp., then the state’s largest construction firm, spent about $133,000 in his 1992 state senate campaign. In that race, the Democrat spent about $29 for each vote he received.

For each vote Sawyer received, he spent about $21.

Cianchette’s race aside, Sawyer’s total more than doubled that of the next biggest spender in recent history.

In 1998, Republican Stephen Murray spent $68,000 in his unsuccessful bid to unseat Democrat Carol Kontos, who spent about $50,000 in the race for Senate District 26.

In 1996, Joel Abromson, spent $58,696 to retain his District 27 seat against Portland Democrat Boyd Marley.

Although not the biggest spender in 1994, Sawyer spent $57,600 in an unsuccessful bid for the Senate District 9 seat. In that race, Bangor Democrat Sean Faircloth spent about $42,000 to win the seat.

For comparison, former State Sen. Robert Murray spent about $32,000 to claim the District 9 seat in 1998.