Democrat Patrick K. McGowan and Green Party candidate Jonathan K. Carter are running against U.S. Rep. Olympia J. Snowe in an uphill race that, in order to succeed, needs to steal some of Snowe’s natural constituency — women.

Yes, 1992 is both the Year of the Woman — witness the plethora of female candidates running nationwide — and the year in which angry voters are supposed to throw all the incumbents out on their ears. So what happens when the incumbent is a woman?

All three candidates are working hard to get the so-called women’s vote, although the truth is that on some women’s issues, the candidates vary little, and so they are working on perception and rhetoric.

McGowan, raised with four sisters, joins Snowe and Carter in being pro-choice and favoring the Freedom of Choice Act, legislation that would make Roe vs. Wade law.

One of McGowan’s volunteers, Judy Harrison, is wooing women voters, as is the McGowan family. In recent days, McGowan has turned to his mother and wife for appearances — mother Ann’s speech before a woman’s club was titled “How I Raised Patrick to be a Feminist.”

And Janet Mills, district attorney in Androscoggin and Franklin counties, held a press conference last week on behalf of the Democrat.

In addition, the Democratic Party’s top two officials — director Lennie Mullen and Chairwoman Jo Karr — both are campaigning hard for the candidate in person and through hard-hitting press releases.

Jonathan Carter is quick to point out that most of his volunteers are women, and last week he received support from Eunice Baumann Nelson and Helen Nearing, two of Maine’s most well-known female activists. Carter has been more forceful in seeking the support of women, saying Monday, “It is time to take off the white gloves.”

In addressing the female constituency, both McGowan and Carter have ridiculed the notion that just because they are men they can’t represent women better than Snowe can. Both McGowan and Carter also have pointed out that Snowe said she would have voted for Clarence Thomas for the Supreme Court had she been serving in the Senate during the vote, a position Snowe said has not appeared to have hurt her.

“I must admit that it has been interesting being a male Green Party candidate, facing a woman incumbent in the quote, Political Year of the Woman, end quote,” Carter said during a Monday press conference. “It has been particularly interesting when that woman uses sex discrimination against me.”

Carter criticized both Snowe and McGowan for not attending rallies for Katherine Hegarty, who was killed during a brief standoff with police at her Dennistown camp in May.

Like McGowan, Snowe has used mailing targeted at women, who compose a hefty portion of potential voters.

Both Snowe and McGowan have been touting their political records as well. McGowan reminds voters that during his legislative tenure he helped create the first shelters for battered women. Snowe points to her leadership with the Congressional Caucus on Women’s Issues, and that she is one of 33 women in American history to serve more than 10 years in Congress.

“I’ve been living and breathing these issues,” she said during a brief interview Monday.

More than once, Snowe has rebutted McGowan’s claim to be better for women than she is by saying, “That’s what men have been telling women for 200 years, and look where it’s gotten us.”