Yes on Question 1, the political action committee that is pushing passage of the ballot question, raised $701,000 through Tuesday and had $301,057 on hand as of that date, according to finance reports filed Friday with the state Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices.
Casinos No! and a smaller PAC that's allied with it in opposing the Passamaquoddy Tribe's plans for a racino pulled in a combined total of $253,755 through Oct. 23. Between them, they had $61,977 on hand early this week.
Placed on the ballot as a citizens initiative, Question 1 would let the tribe install slots at a yet-to-be-built harness track, probably in Calais. The ballot question also would let the tribe, or a group of Indian tribes, offer high-stakes bingo in Washington County.
In its most recent report, Yes on Question 1 said it collected $401,000 from Oct. 1 to Oct. 23, all but $1,000 of which came from the Passamaquoddy Tribe.
Casinos No! raised a total of $152,150 from 28 donors in that period, including $20,000 from Richard Kurtz of Cape Elizabeth, $20,000 from Diana Bean of Falmouth, $15,000 from Linda L. Bean of Port Clyde and $15,000 from Hazel Dyer of Port Clyde.
A separate opposition PAC -- known as Gambling with the Way Life Should Be -- has raised and spent far less than Casinos No! in their shared fight against Question 1.
Gambling with the Way Life Should Be took in $7,550 through Tuesday and had $1,007 on hand. The PAC shares an Augusta address with the Christian Civic League of Maine, which has been the largest contributor to the PAC so far this year, with $6,500 in donations.
Gambling with the Way Life Should Be raised only $240 this month, including $100 from Paul Zierk of Blue Hill, $100 from Sue Curtis of Sorrento and $40 in small, non-itemized contributions.
Aside from the racino question, the only question on the statewide ballot that does not ask voters to borrow money is Question 5, which would change the state's term-limits law.
Question 5 would extend from four to six the number of consecutive terms that state lawmakers can serve. Each term is two years, so passage would let lawmakers stay in office for as long as 12 consecutive years instead of the current eight.
Supporters of Question 5 have not formed a PAC, so they apparently have not raised or spent more than $1,500, the threshold that would require them to do so.
The lone PAC involved in Question 5 is No More Than Four, which opposes extending term limits. It raised $36,960 through Tuesday and had $13,076 left at that time.
No More Than Four continues to receive almost all of its money from U.S. Term Limits in Fairfax, Va., an organization that promotes term limits at all levels of government across the country.
Of the $36,960 that No More Than Four raised, $35,500 -- 96 percent of the total -- came from U.S. Term Limits, according to finance reports.
Ann Luther of the League of Women Voters of Maine, which supports the change, said Friday that it is "of interest" that No More Than Four's campaign is almost entirely funded by an out- of-state group.
It is the Maine Legislature that proposed relaxing term limits, Luther said, but "the defense (of term limits) is not coming from within the state."
Dan Billings, a leader of No More Than Four, said the amount of money his group has collected from U.S. Term Limits is "pretty small compared to the amount of out-of-state money we've seen come into the state" on other ballot questions with higher profiles, such as last year's failed spending cap known as the Taxpayer Bill of Rights.
Billings said "local folks" organized the opposition campaign and are deciding how to run it. If...
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