AUGUSTA -- U.S. Rep. Tom Allen, D-Maine, said Tuesday he's gaining ground on U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, in the race for the U.S. Senate.

Poll results released Monday give Collins 49 percent support, Allen 41 percent, with 10 percent undecided.

The election is now less than one month away.

"She's under 50 percent," Allen said. "In August, we were 25 points down. Do the math. We're moving very, very fast."

Internal polling numbers from the campaign are consistent with those released Monday by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said campaign spokeswoman Carol Andrews.

Allen said his television ads are swaying voters because he's focused on the economy, jobs, health care, energy and Iraq.

"We are speaking much more clearly and forcefully to the needs people have in Maine, the fears they have, the hopes they have right now, than she is," he said. "That's why we're moving so fast."

Allen, a six-term congressman, lawyer and former Portland mayor, told members of the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel editorial board he is best positioned to make a difference in Washington.

Collins' spokesman Kevin Kelley said Collins has maintained a lead throughout the campaign and that she's chosen to focus on the energy crisis and on her record, in her advertisements.

"From the beginning, Sen. Collins chose to run a campaign based on her long record of achievement," he said.

When it comes to the economy, Allen said he voted to support the $700 billion financial rescue package despite many calls to his office urging him to reject it. Collins also supported the same package.

"The economy was at real risk of going down the tubes," he said. "We would see job loss on a scale we haven't seen in our lifetimes."

Allen, 63, said tax cuts and spending on the Iraq war have run up a large national deficit and that America is in debt to many other nations, including China.

If elected to the Senate, Allen said he would want to serve on a committee that would work on health care.

Allen said his health care proposal would allow people to keep the insurance they have, but guarantee insurance for those who cannot afford it.

He said he would also want to serve on the Armed Services Committee because of Bath Iron Works, which is in his current congressional district.

Allen said he voted against the war in Iraq and would want the U.S. to pull out under a timetable. While acknowledging that some money would need to be shifted to Afghanistan, he said some of the $150 billion now spent in Iraq every year could be put to use in the United States.

He also said he would support a tax increase on people who make more than $250,000 a year.

"We will want to correct the mistakes of the Bush tax cuts," he said.

Allen said with Democrats poised to widen their majority in the Senate, he will be in the party that will have the power to get things done.

"I will be a senator in the majority," he said. "The majority is more important than seniority. We're going to have a Democratic majority for some time to come."

Susan Cover -- 620-7015

scover@centralmaine.com