With Electon Day less than two months out, candidates are stepping up efforts to be seen and heard.

It includes campaign ads which involve big money, as well as big monsters.

"See this guy?" Starts a new Angus King ad. "He's supposed to be scary... and over the next couple of months some folks from away are spending big money trying to convince you that this is me."

Angus King's response to ads attacking him, begins running Friday, and so does part of a huge ad blitz by the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

"I don't mind running against Charlie Summers or Cynthia Dill," King commented. "It's difficult to run against these dark clouds that are somewhere else in the country that don't care about Maine and make stuff up."

More than a million dollars in outside ad money has come into Maine in attempts to influence the race to replace Olympia Snowem, most of it an effort to move the needle for republican Charlie Summers.

"What some outside group does, that's beyond my control," remarked Summers. "I can't get distracted by that. I have to focus on my campaign and focus on the issues that I think are critical to this country."

"it's difficult to tell," Summers continued, when asked if he believed the ads were helping him, "I just don't know."

As Summers and King squared off in their first debate on Thursday, the state GOP took a jab at King over his first TV ad.

State Party Chair Charlie Webster filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission saying the ad doesn't include the right disclaimer.

"If Charlie Webster is confused, we're going to change it so he will no longer be confused at least on this issue," King said.

"Is that an acknowledgement that it was incorrect to begin with?"

"No, I just don't want Charlie confused."

Absent from today's debate was Democrat Cynthia Dill, who was teaching a class instead.

"It was a private debate, not open to the public and my responsibilities were with my students at the community college."

The National Republican Senatorial Committee ad went public on-line Wednesday night. It's an attack ad targetting both King and Dill.

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