Both major-party candidates in the Aug. 27 special election to represent Senate District 19 received equal amounts of Clean Elections money, but Democrats enjoy a sizable lead in so-called independent expenditures.

According to financial disclosures filed with the Maine Ethics Commission, about $32,000 in outside money has been spent on behalf of Eloise Vitelli, an Arrowsic Democrat, versus just over $24,000 for Paula Benoit, a Phippsburg Republican, as of Aug. 12.

Those figures are expected to change quickly as the race intensifies.

The Democratic camp surged into the lead with a $12,487 radio buy on Aug. 7. Half of that money — $6,243 — is slated for ads targeting Benoit, who held the District 19 seat from 2006 until 2008, when she narrowly lost to Seth Goodall — the Richmond Democrat whose resignation opened the seat for the Aug. 27 election.

Financing reports from the Commission on Governmental

Ethics and Election Practices showed no independent expenditures for Daniel Stromgren, the Green Independent candidate. On Aug. 9, the left-leaning Maine People’s Alliance sent an email blast to its members, telling of “plans to organize in the district,” going “door to door and person to person” for Vitelli. The MPA has filed no independent expenditure reports with the election commission.

Benoit and Vitelli both qualified for $18,124 in Clean Elections money by collecting the required number of $5 checks from residents. They also both received and spent $1,500 in “seed money” — funds to launch a campaign which can come from any source, with a maximum contribution of $100.

Independent expenditures are the tie-breaker. It’s outside money that can be spent to promote a candidate but cannot be directed by or coordinated with the candidate or the campaign. Outside interests use the money to run TV, print and radio ads, print “palm cards” distributed in door-to-door campaigning, send direct mail, and buy lawn signs, bumper stickers and T-shirts.

Both major parties say they’re focused on signing up District 19 residents for absentee ballots or encouraging them to vote early.

“It’s hard enough for voters to remember the date of a special election,” said one campaign staffer, “but you compound the difficulty when the election falls at a time when people might be on vacation or getting their kids ready to go back to school. The key is turning out voters.”

Democrats are betting big on radio to get out the word about Vitelli, investing 76 percent of their independent expenditures to date — $24,974 — in radio ads. They have also done direct mailings into the district and placed ads in The Cryer.

The vast bulk of the independent financing for Vitelli is coming from the Maine Democratic Party itself.

“We’re spending money from our bank account,” said Lizzy Reinholt, communications director for Maine Democrats.

Republicans, their bank account largely depleted, are counting on individual contributions for the independent financing they are devoting to mailings, web advertising and other tactics. Paving the Way to a Prosperous Maine — a political action committee controlled by state Sen. Mike Thibodeau, leader of Maine’s Senate Republicans — has given $400.

The Maine Republican Party has paid more than $23,000 to Rockwood Solutions Inc., of Manchester, N.H., for direct mail and other advertising.

Rockwood Solutions is owned by Trevor Bragdon, whose brother, Tarren Bragdon, founded the conservative Maine Heritage Policy Center.

In one GOP direct mail piece, Maine Republican Party Chairman Rick Bennett warns activists that “swarms of liberal activists will be flooding the district, knocking on doors and making phone calls.”

“They will do whatever it takes to win,” Bennett wrote. “Every moment that we are not talking to voters is a moment that liberal Maine People’s Alliance activists will be saying negative things about Paula and trying to fool the voters in this election.”

Goodall, of Richmond, served as Senate majority leader before resigning last month after being appointed to the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Democrats currently hold a 19-15-1 advantage in the Senate.

Senate District 19 includes Arrowsic, Bath, Bowdoin, Bowdoinham, Dresden, Georgetown, Phippsburg, Richmond, Topsham, West Bath and Woolwich.

¦ HERE IS A LIST of some independent expenditures made on behalf of candidates in the special election for Senate District 19 as of Aug. 12.

— Senate Democratic Campaign Committee: $833 on weekly newspaper print ads.

— Maine Republican Party: $10,000 on web design, $6,173 on direct mail from Rockwood Solutions Inc., Manchester, N.H.

— Maine Republican Party: $550 for phone bank work and $7,378 for direct mail from Rockwood Solutions.

— Maine Democratic State Committee: $12,487 for radio ads through CD2 Consulting, of New Gloucester; $6,000 for mailers from Ourso Beychok Inc., of Baton Rouge, La.

— Paving the Way to a Prosperous Maine: $400 for campaign literature from Express Graphics of Garland, Texas.

Source: Maine Ethics Commission

JAY FINEGAN, of Freeport, is a Times Record correspondent.