It's up over in Breaking Blue, but via Turn Maine Blue we have news of a very strong fundraising quarter for Democratic Congressman Tom Allen, who is challenging faux moderate Republican Senator Susan Collins in Maine this cycle.

I wanted to share some exciting news about the June 30th fundraising deadline with you today.  In my first quarter as an announced candidate for the U.S. Senate, my campaign raised just under $1.1 million.  Nearly 9,000 people contributed to my campaign over the past three months, giving an average contribution of $122.

I could not have done it without you.  We raised more than one-third of our money from you, the netroots community.  Thank you for all of your activism and generosity during this last quarter.  Together, we sent a strong message throughout the political world about the power of the blogosphere and the importance of ending the Iraq War.

The campaign is still tabulating and categorizing some of the donations, but it appears that Allen raised in the ballpark of $300,000 online this quarter, a fairly impressive haul for a Senatorial candidate in a small state. Much of this total came from an extremely successful fundraiser MoveOn held for Allen as Joe Lieberman trekked up to Maine to raise big dollars for Collins, but a good deal also came from blogs raising money for the campaign.

There's no doubt that this is going to be a difficult race for Allen. Despite the fact that Collins often leans far to the right of the image she is able to project through the establishment media, she is still popular in Maine. But Allen is running strong so far, and his ample fundraising effort this quarter will help put him in a position to take the campaign directly at Collins' weaknesses, like continuing to support the unending American military presence in Iraq.