At Down East this week, I talked about just a few of the 32 contested Maine House primaries that will be decided a little more than a week from now.

Since I wrote the piece, there have been a couple more independent expenditures reported.

Conservative activist (and former Maine GOP executive director) Tony Payne's Maine Prosperity PAC bought newspaper ads supporting two Democrats: Lawrence Greenlaw in Senate District 28 (a race I discussed a few weeks ago) and Benjamin Wootten in House District 37.

Last year, Payne made news by announcing a plan to run conservative candidates in Democratic primaries in an attempt to shift the party to the right. These expenditures may by part of that strategy.

According to the Castine Patriot, Wootten, a small business owner and investment advisor, was once chairman of the Blue Hill Republicans. He switched parties in 2001.

Wootten may be Payne's choice, but he doesn't seem to be a doctrinaire conservative, at least on the issue of health care. He told the Bangor Daily News that he supported a public option as part of federal health care reform and supports a single payer health care system in Maine.