State Political Profile: Maine
U.S. Senate
Republican Olympia Snowe, Maine's senior U.S. senator, faces token opposition in her bid for a third six-year term.
Jean Hay Bright, an organic farmer and author, narrowly defeated lawyer Eric Mehnert in the primary for the Democratic nomination to challenge Snowe for her Senate seat.
After eight terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, Snowe was elected in 1994 to succeed Democrat George Mitchell, the retiring Senate majority leader.
The daughter of Greek immigrants, Snowe was orphaned at 9 and widowed at 26 when her husband was killed in a car crash on the Maine Turnpike while returning home from a session of the Maine House of Representatives.
Snowe ran for the Legislature in her husband's district and won. She has never lost an election; she married again, to another successful politician, John McKernan, a former Maine congressman and two-term governor.
Snowe pulled in 69 percent of the vote against an underfinanced Democratic legislator when she was elected to a second term in 2000.
Bright ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1994 and for the Senate two years later. She worked as a volunteer in the 2004 presidential campaign of U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio. Mehnert, a newcomer to the state political scene, lives in Orono.
Governor
Democratic Gov. John Baldacci has attracted a slew of hopefuls of all stripes hoping to deny him a second four-year term.
Within his own party, Baldacci, who served four terms in the U.S. House before winning a four-way race for governor in 2002, faced a token primary challenge and won by a 3-1 margin.
Republican Chandler Woodcock of Farmington, a state senator, won the June 13 GOP primary to challenge Baldacci, defeating fellow Sen. Peter Mills of Cornville and former U.S. Rep. David Emery of St. George.
Also, Pat LaMarchea radio personality who took 7 percent of the gubernatorial vote eight years ago and campaigned as the Green candidate for vice president in the 2004 national electionhas once again picked up the Green party banner.
Unenrolled independents facing long odds for claiming the Blaine House include state Rep. Barbara Merrill, a freshman legislator who was elected as a Democrat, John Michael of Auburn, who ran for governor four years ago, little-known David John Jones of Falmouth and Phillip Morris NaPier of Windham.
Baldacci, who has held the line on broad-based taxes and championed a controversial insurance program aimed at providing universal health care access, has been dogged by lackluster ratings from the public.
A Critical Insights' poll conducted last fall found that 46 percent of those polled approved of the Democratic governor's performance while 45 percent disapproved and that 38 percent said the governor should be re-elected while 45 percent said he should not be given a second term.
But Baldacci has handily led all others in contributions for his re-election campaign, according to finance reports filed with the state.
Woodcock has qualified for public financing under the state Clean Election Act, and Merrill and Michael have applied for funding but have not yet formally qualified.
In Maine's 2002 general election for governor, Baldacci garnered 238,179 votes for 47.1 percent of the total, besting former Republican lawmaker Peter Cianchette's 209,496 votes, which measured 41.5 percent.
Green Independent candidate Jonathan Carter won 46,903 votes, for 9.3 percent, and independent John Michael received 10,612 votes, or 2.1 percent.
Cianchette threw his hat back in the ring last summer, prompting Emery, who had announced the formation of an exploratory committee, to say he would stay out. Subsequently, Mills jumped in, Cianchette dropped out, Woodcock made his entry and Emery re-upped.
Woodcock, now in his third term in the state Senate, where he took a turn as assistant GOP floor leader, has worked as a teacher and led the Mount Blue girls' basketball team to Class A state championships in 1999 and 2000.
U.S. House
Both of Maine's congressmen are strong favorites for re-election. They include Democratic Rep. Tom Allen in the 1st District, which includes his home base of Portland, and Rep. Michael Michaud in the 2nd District, which contains the state's northern tier as well as Lewiston.
Allen, seeking a sixth term, is being challenged by late-starting state Rep. Darlene Curley of Scarborough, who has become a prominent State House Republican on fiscal matter in just two terms.
Michaud, a former mill worker and longtime state legislator who succeeded Baldacci in Congress, is being challenged by a Republican newcomer to state politics, Scott D'Amboise, a former town selectman from Lisbon Falls.
Legislature
Maine legislative elections have been highly competitive in recent years and should be so again.
Democrats have effectively held control of the 151-member state House of Representatives for three decades, but currently maintain a mere 74-73 plurality over Republicans, with one Green Independent and three unenrolled independents.
Democrats hold the Senate with a 19-16 edge. The split was a bare 18-17 coming out of the November 2004 elections, but a party switch widened the gap.
Ballot Issues
A proposal on the November 2006 ballot would create a taxpayer bill of rights limiting increases in state and local government spending to the rate of inflation plus population growth and requiring voter approval for all tax and fee increases.
Separate proposals to allow a racetrack casino in eastern Maine's Washington County and to outlaw slot machines statewide could share the referendum ballot in November 2007.
-- Associated Press
