The Maine Education Association — the union for teachers and university professors — naturally is free to restrict its political endorsement poll any way it wants. But it must have been chagrined when it discovered that one of the two candidates it ignored in the gubernatorial race is a teacher.

She’s Pat LaMarche, the Green Party member who is among four challengers to incumbent Angus King. Ms. LaMarche, a math teacher, not only has taught at both the high school and college level, but her platform supports or exceeds many of MEA’s positions. She wasn’t interviewed by the MEA because, like Taxpayer Party member Bill Clarke, she’s not part of the usual major-party structure. (The fact that Gov. King isn’t either should have been a tip-off to the association that it was time to rethink the way it handles these things.)

It’s not just the MEA, of course. Political life was far simpler when there were Democratic and Republican representatives with perhaps a third-party member somewhere in the background, choking on the dust of the major candidates. But as Gov. King’s victory in ’94 and his continuing popularity show, that’s not the way campaigns work anymore.

Especially in this year’s gubernatorial race, it is every candidate for himself (or herself) without regard to party. And this is not likely to be a one-time occurance. The inability of the Democratic and Republican organizations to help candidates Tom Connolly and James Longley, respectively, is a clear warning to future candidates: You’re on your own. That could well cause more candidates to take the admonition literally and run independently of a party.

As this happens, groups interested in influencing public opinion or at least influencing their own members’ votes will need expand their view of the races to include all candidates.