ELLSWORTH – Car dealer and financier John Linnehan Jr., who is running for the Maine Senate to get state spending under control, expects to spend $200,000 in his race to unseat incumbent state Sen. Dennis Damon.

Linnehan’s spending, seven times higher than Damon’s, will set an all-time record for Maine legislative races, according to state records.

As of Thursday, Linnehan had spent about $190,000, according to campaign finance reports filed by the candidate.

Linnehan, a Republican, said Friday he will likely hit the $200,000 mark before next Tuesday’s election.

Linnehan, an Ellsworth native, has lent his campaign $140,000 through this week, according to state campaign records. He tops Bangor state Sen. W. Tom Sawyer Jr., who spent a record $153,000 – also mostly from his personal fortune – to unseat veteran incumbent Jane Saxl in 2000.

“In hindsight, it was overkill,” Sawyer said Friday, explaining that he expected Saxl, whose son was speaker of the House at the time, to mount a strong, aggressive campaign.

Sawyer said he was chastised for spending so much money and predicted Linnehan also would be criticized. As with his race against Saxl, Linnehan is running against a well-known and well-liked candidate, Sawyer said, forcing the challenger to spend more than he would as an incumbent.

In 2002, Sawyer spent just $27,718 to win re-election, according to state campaign finance reports.

“I am absolutely persuaded it will be a negative” for Linnehan, Sawyer said of his fellow Republican’s spending.

“I really didn’t set a budget,” Linnehan said Friday of his first campaign for public office. “It was a matter of deciding on the message and then finding the appropriate method to get that message out.”

The best method turned out to be a 20-minute DVD featuring Linnehan talking about his political positions, which include a proposed cap on state spending, a tax revolt, and deregulation of the health insurance industry to promote more competition.

Linnehan said the $49,832 expense is the best money he’s spent in his campaign, reaching about 21,000 households in Senate District 5, which stretches from Stonington to Winter Harbor.

“It cost less than $2.50 a voter,” he said of the DVD produced and distributed earlier this month by the North Dakota firm Spider & Co. “That’s the best value of the campaign.”

Linnehan shrugged off any suggestion that his big spending was ironic considering his sharp criticism of state spending and his call for a spending cap.

“Public funds are different than private funds,” he said. “… I am on a mission to get state government spending under control. This is my life right now.”

He added: “I am not in this for the money. In fact, I plan to give my [legislative] pay to charity.”

Linnehan is majority owner of Atlantic Acceptance Inc., a car finance company, and chief executive officer of Linnehan’s Credit Now! car company and Linnehan’s Car-Mart dealerships in Bangor, Brewer and Ellsworth.

Maine House and Senate members are paid about $18,000 for a two-year session, although they get daily food and travel allowances that add thousands annually to their cash benefits.

Damon, a former teacher and fisherman, has spent just under $28,000, a sum he said is more than he wanted to spend in his bid for a second term in the Maine Senate.

“My goal was $20,000,” Damon said Friday of his campaign spending, adding that the average Senate race costs about $30,000.

“I said ‘I’ll be damned if I’ll do that,’ but I might” before the race ends on Tuesday, Damon said.

A Trenton resident, Damon lists his legislative work as his primary job. He owns a property management company, he said, but has pared back his work to one client to focus on his campaign and legislative work.

Damon said the hardest thing about running for public office, which he has done successfully four times, is asking people to give him money.

However, he thinks the Maine Clean Election Act is flawed and refuses to take public financing.

Under the act, he could have received nearly $60,000 in taxpayer funds because of Linnehan’s spending levels.

“This is by far and away the most money spent on a [legislative] political campaign in the history of Maine,” said Damon, who served three terms as a county commissioner before running for the Senate two years ago.

“To me, it’s a little ironic that my opponent, who talks about waste, fraud and abuse, and how the state has a spending problem, and then to have this kind of overkill in a state Senate race,” Damon said.

For more information on campaign finance for all legislative candidates for years 2002 and 2004, visit the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Elections at www.mainecampaignfinance.com/public/report.