PORTLAND – Democratic Senate hopeful Chellie Pingree is making the rounds in Washington, D.C., as she seeks to raise enough money to unseat incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins next November.

Candidates such as Pingree, the former state Senate majority leader who championed Maine’s prescription drug law, often find themselves seeking money out of state because Maine is so small.

Such was the case last Wednesday when Pingree attended a Georgetown fund-raiser attended by dozens including Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., and former Sen. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey.

Attendees paid $500 to listen to a challenger in one of the country’s smallest states make her case.

“I think Chellie’s goal is to raise as much money as possible to be able to get her name out and have people know who she is when it comes to buying TV ads a year from now,” said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., chairwoman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

George Mitchell, a former U.S. Senate majority leader from Maine, described in his introduction how hard it is to build credibility as an underdog new to the national stage.

“When I first got started, I had to build credibility,” said Mitchell, who brokered peace agreements in Ireland and the Middle East. “It’s terribly difficult to overcome.”

National political figures are giving Pingree an ear because former President Clinton and candidate Al Gore each won the state. Meanwhile, Collins won with 49 percent of the vote against Democrat Joseph Brennan five years ago, so she is considered potentially vulnerable.

Nonetheless, about four out of five Senate incumbents win re-election. Most who lose are too extreme for their state or they’re tainted by scandal, said Oliver Woshinsky, political science professor at the University of Southern Maine.

“Every challenger is solidly behind the eight ball,” he said.

However hard it is, the importance of knocking off an incumbent is paramount for the party faithful in a year when the Senate is divided nearly evenly between 50 Democrats, 49 Republicans and one independent.

Collins spent $1.6 million on her last campaign and the winner next year is expected to spend at least $2 million. Pingree made a strong financial start by raising $310,770 by the end of June, compared to $852,520 that Collins had on hand. Another Democrat, Bob Dunfey, raised $42,239.