AUGUSTA – Maine Democrats have their eyes on not only this year’s election but also on the one two years from now as they head into their biennial convention this week in Augusta.

The two-day gathering opens Friday evening at the Augusta Civic Center and will serve as a showcase for the party’s top-of-the-ticket tandem, gubernatorial hopeful John Baldacci and U.S. Senate aspirant Chellie Pingree.

The convention also will provide a highlighted forum for six candidates vying for the nomination to succeed Baldacci as the representative of Maine’s 2nd Congressional District.

The field includes state Sens. Michael Michaud, Susan Longley and John Nutting as well as former legislator Sean Faircloth, educator Lori Handrahan and former foreign aid worker David Costello.

Luxuriating without an intraparty opponent, like Baldacci and Pingree, will be 1st District U.S. Rep. Tom Allen.

The convention poses different opportunities and challenges for the unopposed statewide candidates and the 2nd District rivals jockeying with one another for advantage.

“The top of the ticket has a chance to get their message out to the general electorate,” said Maine Democratic Party Chairwoman Gwethalyn Phillips. “In the 2nd Congressional District, the candidates need to show their strength going into the June 11 primary and make distinctions on how they would best represent the district.”

Even before the convention formally starts, party organizers will hold an afternoon forum Friday on political development at the grass-roots level.

A separate session before the opening ceremonies will give legislators, who make up majorities in both the Maine Senate and House of Representatives, a chance to discuss health care, education, jobs and the environment – issues that Democrats hope will cut their way at the polls in November.

Taking center stage Friday night will be a series of speakers, including Allen and Baldacci, as well as Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe and U.S. House Democratic Whip Nancy Pelosi, a congresswoman from San Francisco.

“We’re very excited about Nancy Pelosi in particular,” Phillips said. “It would not surprise me if one day we call her speaker of the House.”

Once the Friday night speeches conclude, plans call for the Kennebec County host committee to hold a delegates reception across town at the State House.

The Saturday session opens with an introduction of this year’s Democratic legislative candidates before the scheduled beginning of debate on the party platform.

The six-part, 12-page platform addresses a broad range of subject categories, with heavy attention to labor issues, economic development and “the right kind of tax relief.”

A centerpiece of a section on health calls for “the creation of a universal health care system.” An education plank supports “state funding for the first year of post-high school education.”

The platform expresses support for abortion rights and for a prohibition on discrimination based on sexual orientation in matters of employment, housing, credit and public accommodation.

Declaring opposition to the death penalty, the platform also recognizes “the constitutional right of Maine citizens to keep and bear firearms and the important role which firearms have had in Maine’s cultural heritage and hunting tradition.”

Opposing privatization of Social Security, the platform expresses support for legislation “to strengthen protection of workers’ private pension plans.”

As part of a lengthy section on the environment, the platform suggests that economic interests must be supported.

“Forests must be managed and harvested in ways that protect jobs, wildlife, wetlands, biodiversity and natural beauty. Democrats support the forest’s viability for logging, paper and sawmills, and other wood-based industries. The forests should be managed for the long-term economic health of the forest products industry,” the document says.

Proposed amendments to the platform would expand a plank on Workers’ Compensation and rewrite the health section to call for “the establishment of a national single-payer health insurance system that guarantees comprehensive health care coverage for all Americans.”

Beginning late in the morning on Saturday, 2nd District congressional candidates are slated to make their presentations to the convention.

Afterward comes a discussion of party rules, at which time attention turns to the 2004 presidential election – specifically, to the state party’s system for selecting national convention delegates.

In 2000, Maine Democrats used a hybrid system incorporating both the long-standing convening of local caucuses and a presidential preference primary election.

The Democratic State Committee, saying the 2000 process generated confusion, is supporting a return to the town meeting-style caucus system for 2004, with absentee registration permitted.

Winding up the convention on Saturday, if schedule holds, will be speeches and floor presentations by Pingree and, again, Baldacci.