Field of Maine Greens grows Record 23 run for legislative seats

Rep. John Eder’s office can be a lonely place.

As the only representative from the Maine Green Independent Party, Eder generally has the converted cloakroom on the second floor in the Cross State Office Building all to himself.

He hopes it won’t be for long, as the party has fielded its largest-ever contingent of legislative candidates this year – 23 to be exact, more than double its previous record set in 2002.

“We’ll get a big shoehorn and fit them into a shoe box if we can move the Green agenda,” Eder, who represents Portland’s West End, said this week in a telephone interview from Augusta. “I would surely appreciate the company.”

This year, the party is even experiencing its first-ever contested primary for one of the seats – the newly drawn District 120, a part of Portland.

The concentration on the State House reflects a prevailing attitude among Maine Greens, who, like their counterparts around the country, have been lukewarm to the prospect of fielding candidates for higher office – particularly the presidency.

“This year we are focusing on local races where we have proven we can win,” said Ben Meiklejohn, the Maine party’s chairman. “We intend to build on our gains by winning more seats and having more Green legislators in Augusta to join John Eder.”

Eder, 34, is the first Green elected to the Maine Legislature, and the party’s highest officeholder in the nation.

Redistricting, however, threatened to push Eder out of the House by forcing him to run next fall against Democratic Rep. Benjamin Dudley, a popular third-term incumbent.

Instead, Eder packed his bags in November and moved to another apartment a few blocks away. Back in his old legislative district, he instead will challenge a fellow freshman – a Democrat.

As a rule, Greens have not fared well in the few legislative races in which they have competed. In 2002, when the party fielded 10 candidates, only Eder won the open seat – and handily at that.

Most of the remaining Greens – nearly all of whom ran with public funding under the Maine Clean Elections Act – finished with between 10 percent and 20 percent of the vote.

Meiklejohn on Tuesday said the ability to attract Green candidates has increased as the party has maintained its ballot status for more than a decade.

Steven West, a 34-year-old middle school teacher from Penobscot, is the only Green among six candidates vying for the House District 37 seat in Hancock County.

“To build a party we have to start at the state level,” said West, whose wife ran for the House as a Green in 2002, earning 14 percent of the vote. “I’m going to be pounding the pavement until November.”

While West and the 22 other Green candidates – two for the state Senate and 20 for the House – might not seem like a formidable political force, sheer numbers aren’t everything, Meiklejohn said.

“We don’t need to have a majority, a plurality or even a third to be the balance of power,” he said, predicting that if Greens could make up just 5 percent of the House, they could wield considerable influence in a closely divided body.

“When it comes time to choose a speaker, we could be in the position of asking which party is going to help us advance our agenda,” he said.

Party-affiliated legislative candidates for this year’s elections had until March 15 to file with state officials. Democrats hold majorities in both chambers.