17 with no official party label seek legislative seats

AUGUSTA – In addition to the more than 300 recognized party candidates running for Maine legislative seats in November, 17 have no official party labels.

Sixteen of the unenrolled or “independent” candidates are seeking House seats, and one is running for the Senate.

Their role in the November balloting is part of an increasingly common movement in the American election process, according to Daniel Shea, director of the Center for Political Participation at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pa., where Shea is an associate professor.

Peverill Squire, a professor of political science at the University of Iowa, said Mainers seem to accept minor-party candidates more readily than voters in other regions. He cited Maine’s record of electing two independent governors as an example.

“Part of it is the general political culture. Some of it is there is more acceptance of candidates outside the mainstream,” Squire said. “And once the mold gets broken, it makes it easier for other third parties to succeed.”

But Squire says he thinks the Democrats and Republicans will continue to dominate minor party candidates, even in Maine.

“They’re better off in Maine, and more successful than elsewhere, but the two parties still stand,” Squire said.

Some of the unenrolled candidates associate themselves with minor parties, such as Libertarian and Small Independent Government. But because those parties are not officially recognized in Maine, candidates tied to them are considered unenrolled or independent.

Of the 354 party-affiliated candidates vying for Maine’s 186 legislative seats on Nov. 5, 11 are members of the Green Independent Party and the rest are Democrats or Republicans.

Maine’s independent and minor-party candidates face a challenge getting elected to office, if their past track record is any indication. In the 2000 general election, 28 candidates with unofficial party or independent designations sought state offices, but only one independent was elected to each chamber of the Legislature.

Shea said the number of minor candidates in partisan elections began rising significantly in the 1990s, and they are generally well received on the campaign trail.

“Attitudes toward them have dramatically changed,” Shea said.

Some of Maine’s independent candidates say affiliation with a major political party would prevent them from championing their causes.

John “Jack” Albis Sr., an independent House candidate from Woolwich, supports a property tax cap, consolidation of school districts and cutting the size of the House of Representatives in half. Some of those ideas would not go over well with a party, he said.

“As an independent,” Albis said, “I’m free to think of what the people want, and not what the party wants.”

Richard Davis Hart of Surry, a Libertarian running for state Senate, said voters are receptive to a candidate who is not from the Democratic or Republican party. Sen. Jill Goldthwait, an independent from Bar Harbor, is vacating the seat after four terms, the constitutional limit.