AUGUSTA – More than 2,500 cheering Democrats collectively embraced President Bill Clinton on Thursday night as the former chief executive electrified the crowd with his prediction that John Baldacci would be elected as Maine’s next governor.

“When the economy is bad, you have to have somebody that shares your values, has a vision you can get behind and understands the confidence it requires to make those tough decisions,” Clinton said. “You should be very glad that you have got a person of the quality of John Baldacci running for governor at this moment in the history of Maine.”

Held up in Washington after the House overwhelmingly approved a resolution giving President Bush broad authority to use military force against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, Baldacci – retiring after four terms as Maine’s 2nd District congressman from Bangor – was unable to attend a $100,000 fund-raiser held in his honor in Hallowell earlier in the day or personally thank Clinton for his support.

The 42nd U.S. president reminded the crowd of largely organized labor officials from the Maine State Employees Association, the Maine Education Association, the Maine AFL-CIO and other groups that “Maine is a small enough state” so that people can “get in each other’s face in a good way” to change any of this year’s elections in the next four weeks.

Calling Baldacci likable and “a great, great congressman,” Clinton charmed the audience with his recollections of serving not only as president, but as governor of Arkansas.

“I was a governor for a dozen years before I was president, I was beginning to think I would never get a promotion,” he said. “I loved it every day. And I know what it’s like to be a governor in tough economic times. In tough times and bad times it is even more important to have a good governor. You can’t do in Maine what they do in Washington. You can’t do what the Republicans decided to do – they just up and decided that we’d go back and have red ink.”

Although Baldacci was unable to attend the event, his brother Bob stepped in to represent the congressman who had voted with the minority against the Iraq resolution in the 296-133 House vote.

“My brother did vote the right way,” Bob Baldacci said as his words were lost beneath the roar of the audience. “He voted for peace.”

Baldacci was not the only no-show at what was billed as labor’s Rally Maine 2002 election countdown. The free event attracted a far smaller crowd than predicted by organizers who had hoped to fill the Augusta Civic Center to its 6,800 capacity.

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Chellie Pingree of North Haven appeared in a video presentation that was introduced by her daughter, Hannah. Pingree reportedly was attending an important Washington fund-raiser in her hard-fought struggle to unseat incumbent U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Bangor.

Maine 1st District Congressman Tom Allen, D-Portland, was also unable to catch a flight back to Augusta in time for the rally, leaving the party’s 2nd District hopeful, Michael Michaud of East Millinocket as the only top-of-the-ticket candidate on stage. Michaud, who is running nearly dead even in the polls with Republican challenger Kevin Raye of Perry, reminded the president that even when he improved the national economy, GOP lawmakers would never give him credit.

“The country’s economy was in the ditch and you made the hard decisions and turned things around,” Michaud said. “But the Republicans in Washington could never give you any credit. Oh no. They said it was not Clinton who brought prosperity. It was the House Republicans and Alan Greenspan. Guess what? We still have the House Republicans. We still have Alan Greenspan, and where’s the economy? Back in the ditch.”