PORTLAND – Two years after leaving office, former Gov. Angus King is trying to balance a desire to avoid the limelight with the hope of using his lingering political influence to effect change.

King says he is careful about choosing the issues on which he takes a public stance. He worries about becoming “the governor who never left” and says he isn’t pining for higher political office.

King spoke out last week at a state conference on urban sprawl because he believes it threatens Maine’s future. He publicly opposed the casino referendum in 2003, and the Palesky tax-cap initiative this year. And he campaigned for John Kerry this fall, after voting for President Bush in 2000.

“There was nothing in that for me,” says King. “But if I felt the country was moving in the wrong direction and I had even a tiny influence on (the election), I didn’t want to wake up the next morning and think, ‘Gee, I wish I had done something.'”

Few Mainers expected the popular, two-term independent to drop out of sight after he left office. And King makes no apologies for going public with his feelings on issues involving politics and public policy.