Large amount raised in a short window, campaign team assembles
OXFORD, ME – Job creating businessman and previous Maine Senate President Rick Bennett is announcing his fundraising totals in the first quarter for his campaign for the United States Senate.
Mr. Bennett will report to the Secretary of the U.S. Senate that he raised just under $108,000 in less than one month and ended the month with nearly $105,000 cash-on-hand. Mr. Bennett began his campaign after the first of March and the report runs through March thirty-first. Since that time thousands of additional dollars have come in.
“Maine people are concerned about jobs, our economy, gas prices and out-of-control federal spending. As the only candidate running for the Senate who turned a start-up Maine business into an internationally recognized firm creating jobs, I am ready to go to work improving our economy. I look forward to discussing my proven pro-small business and anti-debt record from the Maine Legislature in this campaign. Washington could use some Maine common sense and that begins with supporting community small businesses and having the nation live within our means,” Mr. Bennett said.
Mr. Bennett also today announced some of the people who have taken an active role in supporting his campaign.
Former Maine House Republican Leader Josh Tardy of Newport, credited with helping win a Republican House majority in 2010, has joined his campaign as Treasurer; Chris Jackson, originally from Aroostook County, who managed a statewide Republican gubernatorial campaign and worked with the Maine State Chamber of Commerce, is entering the role of Campaign Manager; Brent Littlefield, originally from Lincoln and Augusta, known for multiple campaign efforts in Maine including the successful LePage campaign for Governor, is serving as the General Consultant; and Ann Robinson, originally from Lewiston, who chaired the Maine Republican State Convention in 2008 and has served as legal counsel to the Maine Republican Party and several Republican presidential campaign Maine efforts, is serving as Bennett Campaign Counsel.
Rick Bennett was elected Maine State Senate President in a historic power-sharing agreement with Democrats brought on by his successful management of the Maine Republican Senate caucus at a time when other Republicans were not successful at the ballot box. Prior to the Senate Presidency he served in leadership and as the sole Republican Senator on the Appropriations Committee.
He is also a former Member of the Maine House, and he held several volunteer positions in the Maine Republican Party including Secretary and Vice Chairman, and was elevated by the entire Maine Republican State Convention to the post of Republican National Committeeman representing Maine. Mr. Bennett twice served as Chairman of the Maine Republican State Convention. At just the age of thirty, Mr. Bennett ran for and successfully won the Republican primary for Congress in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District finishing just shy of a win in 1994.
Mr. Bennett not only has a consistent pro-small business voting record from his time in the Maine House and Senate, he also has consistently supported 2nd Amendment Rights. Mr. Bennett first began raising alarms bells about the rising national debt back in the early 1990s and has consistently been a critic of wasteful government spending and high debt.
Currently he is CEO of GMI Ratings, a world-renowned research firm headquartered in Portland, Maine, with offices in New York, San Diego and London. Under Rick’s leadership since 2006, GMI Ratings has grown from a money-losing start-up to a profitable enterprise, employing more than 40 people. The company’s work is unique – providing information to retiree pension funds and investors, helping point out when corporate CEOs are rewarded with high pay and benefits even as their companies lose money – a practice Rick stringently opposes.
Rick’s work has been cited in The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, USA Today, Fortune, and Barron’s. In addition to GMI Ratings, Rick has served on the board of a Maine-based telecom company that now employs more than fifty people in Biddeford.
Rick received his B.A. with honors from Harvard University in 1986 and his M.B.A. from the University of Southern Maine in 2000. At home, he farms Christmas trees and enjoys long-distance running, having completed eight marathons and ultra-marathons. He lives in Oxford, Maine, with his wife Karen and their two children – along with one dog, two cats and two horses.
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