WASHINGTON – Maine’s 2012 U.S. Senate race isn’t much of a fundraising contest so far.

Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe had more than $3.2 million on hand as of Sept. 30, according to the report that her campaign is filing with the Federal Election Commission.

During the third quarter of this year, Snowe’s campaign raised $792,305 and spent $320,716, the report said.

The fundraising shows that Snowe continues to stockpile money in anticipation of both primary and general election challenges next year as she seeks her fourth term in the Senate. The third-quarter total follows Snowe’s second-quarter haul of about $1 million.

Scott D’Amboise, one of two tea party-affiliated GOP challengers, raised “six figures,” but will not have his third-quarter total until later this week, said Tyler Harber, a D’Amboise campaign consultant.

As of June 30, D’Amboise’s campaign had collected less than $142,000 and had just over $111,000 on hand, according to his campaign finance report.

Harber said the third-quarter total will surpass what D’Amboise took in during the second quarter. D’Amboise, a health care technician and small-business owner from Lisbon Falls, ran for Congress in 2006 against Democratic U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud.

In addition to D’Amboise, Andrew Ian Dodge, a freelance writer from Harpswell, has said he will run in the GOP primary.

Dodge didn’t raise enough money to warrant filing a campaign report during the first half of the year. He said Monday night via email that he won’t be turning in a third-quarter report either because, “We have neither raised nor spent enough to have to file.”

Two Maine Democrats, state Rep. Jon Hinck of Portland and former Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap of Old Town, are contemplating challenging Snowe, setting up a potential Democratic primary in 2012.

Sharon Miller, a Snowe campaign aide, said, “We had another strong quarter and are working hard to make sure we will have the resources needed to run the kind of tough, costly races that have unfortunately become the norm.”

The filing deadline for third-quarter campaign finance reports is Oct. 15, but it has become common for candidates who raise a lot of money to tout their fundraising before the deadline.

Snowe raised less than $3.8 million during her entire campaign in 2006, when she ran unopposed in the primary and won 74 percent of the vote in the general election against Democrat Jean Hay Bright, who raised about $127,000, according to the Almanac of American Politics.

Snowe’s 2012 campaign already has taken in more than $3.5 million, her report shows, with the election still more than a year away.

In 2008, Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine raised more than $8 million in defeating former Democratic U.S. Rep. Tom Allen, who raised nearly $6 million.

MaineToday Media Washington Bureau Chief Jonathan Riskind can be contacted at 791-6280 or at: jriskind@mainetoday.com

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