One of the shortest legislative campaigns ever in Maine was also one of the most expensive.

Final financial reports from the Aug. 27 special election in Senate District 19 show money and negative ads played key roles.

A total of $156,252 in “independent expenditures” has observers questioning what it portends for Maine’s 2014 general election.

The victorious candidate, state Sen. Eloise Vitelli, DArrowsic, benefitted from more than $96,000 in so-called independent expenditures.

Reports show top givers to Vitelli included $5,000 from Cain for Maine, the political arm for state Sen. Emily Cain’s run for Congress; $4,348 from Strengthening Maine, the political action group tied to former state Sen. Seth Goodall, D-Richmond; $2,500 each from First Wind, Wal-Mart, FedEx and trade groups for Maine dentists, chiropractors and credit unions; and a total $9,950 from various health care interests.

Most of that outside financing went to buy radio spots, mailers and other communications in direct support of Vitelli.

However, $29,781 was reserved for negative ads against her opponent, Paula Benoit, RSenate Phippsburg. Benoit held the District 19 seat in the 123rd Legislature, serving in 2007 and 2008.

Vitelli’s lopsided advantage in negative expenditures helped her link Benoit to Gov. Paul LePage.

Independent expenditures on behalf of Benoit rang in at $60,141, but only $1,470 was directed against Vitelli, according to Paul Lavin, assistant director of the Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices.

That negative money took the form of anti-Vitelli phone calls orchestrated by Brent Littlefield, a political adviser to LePage.

Vitelli and Benoit both qualified for Clean Elections money — approximately $18,000 each — by collecting the required number of $5 checks from district residents.

But those funds were dwarfed by the $156,252 in independent expenditures — outside money spent on behalf of candidates but which cannot be directed by or coordinated with the candidate or the campaign.

Lavin said $156,000 in outside funding would have been considered an extraordinary amount for a Senate election up to 2010.

In 2012, however, much bigger money entered the picture. That year, some $450,000 in outside expenditures played a huge role in Senate District 32, in Bangor, in a race between incumbent Republican Nichi Farnham and the eventual winner, Democratic challenger Geoffrey Gratwick.

“In 2012, the $156,000 spent on this election would have made it only the eighth most expensive Senate race,” Lavin said. “It would have made the top 10, but it would not have been considered out of whack.”

However, viewed amid a truncated campaign and with relatively few votes cast, the race can be seen as even more expensive.

“It’s a very high amount for any Maine legislative election,” said James P. Melcher, a University of Maine at Farmington political analyst. “That’s a huge amount of money per vote cast.”

Melcher said factors that contributed to the spending: “It was an open seat, a race in which partisan sentiment was running high, the district was competitive, the candidates were strong and the outcome was in doubt.”

“That’s all a recipe for a lot of donations,” he said.

The tone of the campaign was enough to spark action by Peter Mills, a former longtime state senator, former gubernatorial candidate and now executive director of the Maine Turnpike Authority.

In a $602 independent expenditure of his own, Mills crafted a radio spot that ran 75 times on WCMEAM — a Brunswick-based news radio station — in the final days of the campaign.

“I served with Paula Benoit in the Maine Senate,” Mills said in the commercial. “She is truly one of the most thoughtful and decent policy makers I ever worked with.”

The District 19 special election, held Aug. 27, was set in motion by the resignation of Goodall, a Richmond Democrat who was named New England director of the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Goodall narrowly defeated Benoit for the Senate seat in 2008.

The Aug. 27 special election also featured Green Independent Daniel Stromgren, whose campaign pointedly refused any outside money. He finished with 4 percent of the vote.

Final financial reports on independent expenditures were due to the ethics commission by Oct. 8.

The Vitelli-Benoit contest was close, with 4,621 votes for Vitelli to 4,339 for Benoit.

Mills, a moderate Republican, worries that the Vitelli- Benoit race is a forerunner of the 2014 general election — both in fundraising trends and negative campaign tactics.

“This is like the Spanish Civil War followed by World War II,” he said. “If the Democrats conclude that attack ads worked against Paula, that will be their playbook next year. All those same weapons will be back on the battlefield.

“I don’t know how Senate Republicans would react. But I thought it was an injustice to attach Paula Benoit to Paul LePage and run her into the ground because they’re in the same party.”

JAY FINEGAN is a Times Record correspondent based in Freeport.