BELFAST - U.S. Senate candidate Shenna Bellows started making national headlines recently when her fundraising in the last quarter of 2013 surpassed that of three-term Senator Susan Collins.

On a visit to Belfast Sunday, the former director of ACLU Maine and presumptive Democratic nominee was hoping to build on that momentum. She toured Front Street Shipyard and Coastal Farms & Food Processing. In between she met with Waldo County Democrats to deliver a three-pronged assignment: spread the word about her campaign, keep the small donations coming, and try to win back fellow party members who voted for Collins in 2008.

“Our biggest hurdle is letting people know who I am and what I represent,” she said.

Bellows still has a long way to go on all fronts, but the attention given to her grassroots fundraising accomplishment — the majority of last quarter’s roughly $300,000 total came from within Maine, mostly in increments of $100 or less — started an earnest conversation at the national level about whether she could beat the as-yet-untouchable Collins.

Outpacing the senior senator again at the next reporting deadline would build on that momentum, Bellows said, but it wouldn’t be easy. She anticipated that corporate donors would start to pour money into the Collins re-election campaign. As a result, she said she would need many more small contributions.

“We had around a thousand Mainers [who donated] last time around,” she said. “We’d like two thousand Mainers.”

Past receipts came from every county in the state and every municipality in Waldo County, Bellows said, except Jackson — in the interest of being complete, she was hoping for at least a $5 contribution this time around.

The larger goal is to win back Democrats who voted for Collins in the year Barack Obama was first elected president.

“If we win the Democrats in this state we win,” she said.

An analysis of the 2014 Senate races published recently by the New York Times concluded that control of the Senate is reasonably up for grabs. For this reason, Bellows said a vote for Collins could lead to the ascension of a less moderate Republican like Ted Cruz or Mitch McConnell to Senate Majority Leader. 

The trick for Bellows has been to differentiate herself from a Republican who has a reputation as a moderate and a voting record that isn’t entirely at odds with Bellows’ platform.

In the current Congress, Collins voted with her party 60-percent of the time according to a database published by the Washington Post. The percentage is the second lowest of any current senator and Collins’ lowest to date. But Bellows raised concerns about specific key votes that she said have favored the interests of a wealthy and powerful minority over those of most Americans.

She pointed out that Collins had voted twice in favor of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, and referred to comments on a local radio show in which Collins said the proposal to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 represented too much of an increase and could hurt businesses.

Consistent with her work with the ACLU, Bellows has made civil liberties a centerpiece of her Senate bid. In contrast to Collins, who voted for the Patriot Act and bills that loosened regulations on government wiretapping, Bellows wants the Patriot Act repealed and has taken a strong stance against domestic surveillance. This combined with her underdog status led the Progressive Change Campaign Committee to dub her the “Elizabeth Warren of civil liberties.” 

On Sunday she embraced the comparison to the Massachusetts senator in her remarks to Waldo County Democrats.

“Let them know that there is a different vision, and a different alternative,” she said.

Bellows may be new to the election circuit, but she’s not a stranger to politics. Before heading the ACLU in Maine, she worked for the organization’s Washington chapter and she said she’s often been able to get things done by building “unusual coalitions.” 

During the campaign to legalize same-sex marriage in Maine, Bellows hired a staff member at ACLU Maine specifically to work with Republicans on the issue. The final passage of the law, she said, hinged on support from both major parties, along with libertarians and Greens.

In addition to the Elizabeth Warren comparison, recent articles about Bellows invariably make note of her praise for Republican Senator Rand Paul’s filibuster at CIA head John Brennan's confirmation over concerns about the president’s drone policy.

If elected, Bellows said she would be equally at home working with Warren on financial regulations and Paul on civil liberties.

“My philosophy is no permanent friends, no permanent enemies,” she said.

The approach recalls the bipartisanship of a bygone generation, when crossing the aisle was not a rare feat of statesmanship but a practical fact of government. Bellows said many actions lauded as “bipartisan” today amount to compromises that favor the wealthy and powerful at the expense of the majority of Americans.

“If we’re going to have meaningful progress on climate change, economic equality and civil rights, we need fresh energy and new vision in Washington,” she said. “We can’t expect meaningful change with the status quo.”

Speaking to fellow Democrats on Sunday, Bellows acknowledged that this wouldn’t be easy. In her closing remarks, she compared the challenge of unseating Collins to the story of David and Goliath.

“But don’t forget,” she said. “David won.”

Ethan Andrews can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com