Parties choose candidates for major state offices

AUGUSTA – In a prelude to today’s opening of the two-year legislative session, Democratic and Republican lawmakers on Tuesday nominated their candidates for state treasurer, attorney general and secretary of state.

But given the Democratic legislative majority, that party’s incumbent nominees for the three prominent state offices are virtually guaranteed to be formally elected by members of the House and Senate after they are sworn in today.

The Democratic nominees include Treasurer Dale McCormick, Secretary of State Dan Gwadosky and Attorney General Steven Rowe.

The Republicans, in a largely pro forma step, voted to put forward their own slate of nominees for the three offices.

They include Norman Ferguson Jr. of Hanover for treasurer. Ferguson, who is completing the state-allowed maximum of four consecutive terms in the Senate, is a retired paper company accountant and purchasing agent.

Farmington lawyer Paul Mills was nominated for attorney general, and John Buck of Yarmouth, who is finishing his fourth House term, is the GOP nominee for secretary of state.

In accepting their nominations, the three Democrats ticked off Democratic causes and gave their caucus pep talks in advance of a new session whose agenda is likely to shaped by their own majority.

“You will build, brick by brick, the infrastructure of health care for all,” McCormick, a former state senator, told the caucus.

Rowe, a West Point graduate and former speaker of the House, said the lawmakers “cannot afford to be caretakers” and cautioned against allowing an erosion of Democratic-backed gains.

He pledged to work in partnership with the Legislature to strengthen consumer protections, increase access to health care and prescription drugs, make workplaces safer, and prevent the “devastation” of domestic abuse.

“The people of Maine are counting on us,” Rowe said. “We cannot let them down.”

Gwadosky, also a former House speaker, sounded a similar theme as he urged Democrats to keep in mind “the tens of thousands whose lives you may make better.”

Gov.-elect John Baldacci will be sworn in Jan. 8 as Maine’s first Democratic chief executive in 16 years. Democrats maintain an 80-67 House majority over Republicans in the House, where Greens will have one seat and three will go to unenrolled candidates.

The Democrats’ 18-17 edge in the Senate is more tenuous because one seat remains in dispute. In the District 16 race, 44 ballots are expected to be reviewed by the Senate to determine whether Democrats keep their one-seat advantage.

Gov. Angus King, an independent who is finishing his second four-year term, will administer the oath of office to the newly elected lawmakers Wednesday morning. The House and Senate will then elect their presiding officers.

Sen. Beverly Daggett of Augusta is poised to ascend from majority leader to Senate president. The Republican bloc is ready with its own nominee: Richard Bennett of Norway, who served a year as president under a power-sharing arrangement with the Democrats.

In the House, Democrats tapped their majority leader, Patrick Colwell of Gardiner, to be speaker. Republicans hadn’t decided by Tuesday whether to put forth a candidate.