BELFAST – In a back corner of the Unitarian Universalist church, a small group of Waldo County Greens – three, to be exact – did its part to shape the party’s evolving election year strategy.

Low turnout at the Saturday caucus was unseemly for the midcoast county, a virtual epicenter of progressive politics where Greens comprise nearly 3 percent of voters – the highest anywhere in the state.

But Maine Green Independent Party officials say this year is different, with members defecting in droves to the Democratic ranks, leaving those who stay divided on whether to field a presidential candidate at all.

“People are afraid of the spoiler label,” said Heather “Betsy” Garrold, a state party chairwoman, explaining the reluctance to back a presidential contender amid renewed resentment surrounding the 2000 run of Ralph Nader, whom many see as handing the election to George Bush by siphoning votes from Democrat Al Gore, especially in key states such as Florida.

“A lot of the party is in the ‘Anyone but Bush’ campaign,” she said of the split, the debate over which will likely resume at the Bangor Greens caucus Thursday.

Despite the argument that the party should forgo a presidential run this year, Garrold of Brooks and her two fellow Greens from nearby Lincolnville chose from a handful of Green hopefuls during Saturday’s caucus in Belfast.

Their pick: David Cobb, a relatively unknown 40-year-old Texas attorney and current front-runner for the party’s presidential nomination.

The candidate, said Maine Green party founder John Rensenbrink, was a good one, but not because Cobb can win the presidency.

On the contrary, it’s because he probably can’t.

“Our effort is an effort to run a low-key, low-profile candidate in nonswing states,” said Rensenbrink, a move he said would allow the party to maintain its national presence but devote its resources to local and state races. “We are concerned about what we do and what happens in the name of the Green party.”

Tim Sullivan, a member of the Maine party’s steering committee, faults the reasoning behind the so-called “safe state” strategy as an admission that Nader spoiled the 2000 election for Democrats.

“We don’t need to capitulate this year,” Sullivan said Monday. “But a lot of people are falling in step with that line.”

Sullivan said he would instead support an effort to deliver the Green nomination to Nader at the party’s national convention in Milwaukee, despite his recent announcement that he would run as an independent.

On Sunday in Washington County, Tonya Troiani didn’t want Nader – or anybody else for that matter – to run for president as a Green.

“The goal is to get rid of you-know-who,” said Troiani, the chairwoman of the Washington County Greens. All five participants at that caucus voted to abstain from choosing a presidential candidate.

With about 16,000 registered voters statewide, the Greens have grown exponentially since their formation 30 years ago, adding about 4,000 voters since 2002. This year, the party will field between 20 and 30 local and state candidates, a record.

With anti-Bush sentiment at a fever pitch among progressives, however, there has been an anecdotal but “not unsubstantial” drop in membership in the past few months, Rensenbrink said.

For instance in Belfast, membership has dropped 11 percent since November of last year, with many of those jumping ship in the weeks before February’s Democratic caucuses, according to city officials.

Two of those former Greens, Marina Delune and Wesley Rothermel, showed up to the Belfast area caucus Saturday, to “build bridges,” they said, between Greens and progressive Democrats.

Now Delune and Rothermel, both of Belfast, are running for the Maine Senate – as Democrats.

Rothermel, a 59-year-old accountant, left the Green Party after four years, he said, to support Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, whose progressive platform lured many Greens.

“I wanted to participate in the process rather than sit around and complain about it,” said Rothermel. “I could do that as a Democrat. I couldn’t do that as a Green.”

But for Troiani, the only registered Green in the Washington County town of Meddybemps, population 120, leaving was not an option.

“Once you go Green you can never go back,” she said. “You can’t think that you can change things all at once, and I’m still plugging away.”