Monday was a day of going through the motions one last time for the 2nd District congressional hopefuls as they worked the crucial Lewiston and Bangor areas in hopes of luring just a few more votes their way.

Republican Rep. Olympia Snowe and Democratic challenger Patrick McGowan spent most of Monday in the Bangor area, while Green Party candidate Jonathan Carter campaigned in Lewiston.

When she wasn’t running into Canadians, Snowe was getting a warm reception during an afternoon campaign swing in Bangor.

After finding few workers at the General Electric and New England Telephone Co. offices in Bangor, Snowe and her campaign aides moved on to the Bangor Mall.

“Who’re you lookin’ at in the presidential race?” Snowe asked one man sitting near the center of the mall.

“Ross,” he replied. “How you gonna work with him?”

Snowe reminded him that while in the Maine House, she served under independent Gov. Jim Longley with a Democratic House and a Republican Senate. You just do what you have to do to get things done, she said.no quotes

As she talks with people, others pass by, doing a double-take.

“That’s Olympia Snowe.”

“Uh-huh.”

“You got my vote,” said one mall worker, adding that he once worked for Bass Shoe Co. and didn’t believe McGowan’s chargeabout Snowe costing Maine 10,000 jobs. Somebody, he said, has to take care of that mess in Washington. “I wish I could run my household budget like they do theirs.”

Over and over, mall salespeople, setting up their wares for the Christmas season, offered their hands. A couple told her not to worry, that she would win re-election easily. “Ohhhh, I dunno,” she said.

One man working a Hickory Farms booth motioned to a large sausage, telling Snowe she could use it “to pound some sense into Pat.”

About the same time, McGowan was up the road, passing out his own literature and seeking as many Bangor votes as he can get.

“It’s been a good campaign, very upbeat, very positive — on my part,” the Democrat said with a grin. “There’s a rage out there with the voters. I’m looking for a record turnout.”

Back at campaign headquarters, McGowan said that if he had to do it differently, he would have responded more quickly to Snowe’s television blitz attacking his record.

“The voters have had so much thrown at them — Clinton, Bush and Perot, the local candidates. I just don’t know if they’ve been able to sort it out. One thing, though, I’m glad to see her on the run.”

At one point before the interview, McGowan was sitting at his press secretary’s desk, talking on the telephone, one eye on a bank of three black-and-white TV sets across the room. Snowe’s ad about the Caribbean Basin Initiative started running on one of the sets. “Hold on,” he said as he put his hand over the receiver and watched the ad. Then he started talking back to the television. “Olympia, ohhh. You can’t say that, it’s not true. Geez.”

All three candidates knew that while they might have been able to round up a few stray votes Monday, it was, for the most part, in the hands of a very fickle electorate.

Snowe and McGowan also agreed to say something nice about their opponents, just to end what lately has been a tempestuous campaign, on a high note.

“I think she’s a hard worker. She always has been,” McGowan said. “She’s just failed to deliver.”

Funny thing, Snowe said the same about McGowan: “He’s a tireless campaigner.”

As for Carter, McGowan said, “He’s a nice guy. I don’t have anything bad to say about him.”

Carter, said Snowe, “does have very strongly held convictions.”

As did McGowan and Snowe, Carter spent part of his day in Lewiston, the district’s largest city. No matter what happens Tuesday, he said, the Greens are going to Washington.

“The impact of the Green Party vote in the 2nd District will be felt long after the election,” Carter said during an Auburn speech.