AUGUSTA – Reforming party structure in advance of next year’s elections will be a major item on their agenda as Maine Green Independent Party members gather for their annual convention today in Augusta.

Party activists also will be gearing up for the 2006 races for Maine governor, Legislature and municipal offices when they meet, leaders of the fledgling political party said.

Claiming more than 19,000 registered members statewide, Greens have placed party members in the Maine House of Representatives and in a number of municipal boards across the state. The three Greens on the nine-seat Portland School Committee have used their positions to press social issues that reflect party values.

Pat LaMarche, the Green candidate for governor in 1998 and national Green Party candidate for vice president in 2004, will be the keynote speaker at today’s convention, which party co-chairman Matt Tilley said is expected to draw 75 to 150 people.

The Greens also will hear from Jonathan Carter, who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1994 and 2002, and from Stephen Spring, a member of the Portland School Committee.

Party co-chairman Betsy Garrold calls this a crucial year for the Maine Greens as they gear up for the 2006 races. She said members are re-evaluating their party structure and striving to include more grass-roots participation.

A proposal before party members today would reduce the party’s board from its current 13 members to five, who would include three co-chairmen, a secretary and treasurer, said Tilley. And instead of having the board elected directly by rank-and-file members at the convention, they would be elected by delegates elected at the municipal level.

In that way, the Green party structure would more closely resemble that of the Democratic and Republican parties. The changes are seen as a way to encourage formation of stronger municipal party committees, Tilley said.

Next year’s gubernatorial elections also are likely to be a matter of informal discussion at the party gathering, with the names of at least three potential candidates being mentioned within party circles, said Tilley.

“There will be some informal networking going on,” Tilley predicted. But he added that more formal efforts to secure party support would take place at next year’s summer convention, the last one before the 2006 elections. Tilley noted that a first-ever Green gubernatorial primary in Maine is a possibility next year.

First organized in 1984, the Maine Greens gained official recognition in Maine a decade later based on Carter’s vote total in the 1994 gubernatorial election, and claimed the distinction of being the oldest state Green Party in the nation.

The Greens later were disqualified as an official party, but with LaMarche’s 1998 finish in the Blaine House race, they regained state recognition and were reconstituted as the Green Independent Party.