Cape Elizabeth's Dill enters Senate primary

REGION — State Sen. Cynthia Dill has made it official - she wants to go to Washington.

On New Year's Day, the Cape Elizabeth Democrat began sounding out the possibility of entering the primary race, in hopes of being the one selected by party faithful to try and unseat U.S. Senator Olympia Snowe. On Monday, Dill confirmed she has entered the race.

"Yes, I have mailed the official paperwork to the Secretary of the United States Senate declaring my candidacy and registering the Dill for U.S. Senate committee," Dill wrote in direct message on Facebook.

By deadline Tuesday, Dill had not returned calls or emails requesting details on her campaign team or scheduled fundraising events.

A civil rights attorney who has run her own practice since 1994, Dill, 47, says she entered politics due to her alarm over George W. Bush's re-election in 2004. A run at the Cape Elizabeth Town Council the following year came up six votes short, but she had better luck with the Legislature in 2006. In May, halfway through her third term in the State House, Dill won a special election to fill out the state Senate term of Larry Bliss, who resigned to take a job in California.

In a report filed Jan. 17 with the Maine Ethics Commission, the Dill’s political action committee, Dill Leadership PAC, showed cash on hand as of Dec. 31 to be $48.39. The largest expense for the last quarter of 2011 was $1,000 paid to Dill as a "fee to write blog." Dill posted three blog entries on her site during that timeframe. A similar blog writing fee – this time for $3,000 – was paid to Dill from her PAC in the third quarter.

On Friday, Ben Pollard, 39, owner of Portland-based construction company Pollard Builders, announced that he, too, had entered the Democratic Party primary. Both must gather at least 2,000 valid signatures by March 15 to get on the June primary ballot.

They join previously announced candidates Matt Dunlap, 46, a former secretary of state from Old Town, and state Rep. Jon Hinck, 58, of Portland.

Snowe, 64, has been in Congress since 1978 and will be seeking her fourth term in the upper chamber. She does have two primary challengers of her own, Scott D'Amboise of Lisbon Falls and Andrew Ian Dodge of Harpswell.