The Senator From Away?

In comments over at Turn Maine Blue, GordonM points to the updated fundraising tallies over at OpenSecrets.org, which now include the 2008 race.

There's a wealth of data on the site. And looking it over, one quickly learns that Collins has raised more money--and a higher percentage of her money--out-of-state than has Rep. Allen.

But that's really the least of it.

Because just about every statistic listed has one fascinating thing in common: They all puncture the narrative that the Collins camp has been pushing throughout this campaign.

Consider:

Seven out of every ten dollars raised by Collins has come from outside of Maine.

She's raised more money for this race in the DC metro region than from any city in Maine.

She's raised more money from one zip code in Paradise Valley, AZ than any Maine zip code but one. (04107: Cape Elizabeth.)

And she's raised more money from business PACs than from all of her in-state donors combined.

It's not clear to me how the candidate favored by Washington DC, big business and Paradise Valley, AZ has gotten away with portraying herself as the victim of outside forces rather than the tool of them.

But it's clearly time for the Maine media to stop indulging this fantasy.

UPDATE: Just in case you were wondering--we certainly were--Paradise Valley, AZ is a town of 14,558 just outside Phoenix.

According to Wikipedia, it sports twelve resorts, a median household income of $150,228 and a median home price of $1.74 million.