PORTLAND – The 350 miles that separate her Aroostook County hometown and this year’s site of the Maine Democratic Convention did little to dissuade a determined Joyce Damboise.

“Bush has to be out,” said the 68-year-old Connor Township woman, the first Aroostook delegate in her seat before the convention’s kickoff Friday afternoon at the Cumberland County Civic Center.

Damboise’s sentiments have become a rallying cry for the estimated 2,500 Democrats registered for the weekend event, where rank-and-file delegates gathered to debate changes to the party’s 2004 platform and denounce the Bush administration’s economic and foreign policies.

“Today we get angry and tomorrow we get even,” Portland Mayor Nathan Smith told the crowd. “And there will be a reckoning in November.”

Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, already with more than the needed 2,161 national delegates to seal his party’s nomination, is presumed to be part of that Election Day reckoning. While Kerry’s Maine delegates were in the majority Friday, those backing two former presidential hopefuls, ex-Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich, made their presence known.

Kucinich supporters on Friday canvassed the convention hall in hopes of earning at least three delegates to this summer’s national convention in Boston. Kucinich, whose staunch anti-war stance has made him a fringe favorite of some Maine progressives, is scheduled to speak Saturday morning.

Maine will send a total of 36 delegates to the national convention.

But with the nomination all but a foregone conclusion, party leaders focused on Kerry, who has pulled ahead of Bush in some recent polls.

“I love Dennis Kucinich … and Howard Dean,” said state party Chairwoman Dottie Melanson in response to chants from Kucinich supporters. “But in the end, it’s John Kerry.”

Earlier Friday, Bush campaign officials offered a counterpunch of sorts to Maine Democrats, touting new numbers showing a drop in Maine’s unemployment rate.

“The economies of Maine and New Hampshire have faced challenges, but we are meeting those challenges,” Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt said in a conference call with reporters from those states.

Before the convention’s afternoon speeches – which included a televised address from comedian and liberal talk show host Al Franken – members of the party’s platform committee considered more than 30 amendments to an already lengthy draft platform.

During its debate, the panel declined to endorse proposals that would include a tax on commercial water extraction and a repeal of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

In its most contentious dispute, members split 17-12 in favor of striking language within a plank addressing the Israeli-Palestinian issue that some regarded as one-sided toward the Palestinian cause.

The full convention will take up all the amendments, whatever the committee’s recommendations, later this weekend.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.