AUGUSTA – He was in, he was out, and now David Emery is back in the hunt to become the state’s next governor in 2006.

Late Thursday afternoon, the Maine Republican Party sent out a blanket e-mail to membership on the former congressman’s behalf inviting them to join Emery in Augusta on Monday “as he announces his candidacy for governor.”

It will be Emery’s second announcement. On June 15, he told reporters in the State House Hall of Flags that he was forming an exploratory committee to seek the GOP nomination for governor since no other candidate had come forward.

Shortly after he took that step, Emery was joined by another Republican, Cornville state Sen. Peter Mills. By the end of July, Peter Cianchette, the party’s unsuccessful 2004 candidate, signaled he would like another shot at Democratic Gov. John E. Baldacci. Cianchette’s entry into the race prompted Emery to bow out in deference to a candidate he believed would be the strongest in the GOP field.

All that changed earlier this month when Cianchette suddenly dropped out of the race citing family considerations. On Oct. 17, state Sen. Chandler Woodcock of Farmington announced his intention to become the third Republican to run for the Blaine House. Bangor resident Steven Stimpson also has filed intentions with the state ethics commission to seek the Republican nomination for governor.

The fourth Republican to enter the race, Emery said Thursday he would offer the GOP a different choice.

“I think probably Peter’s to my left and Chandler’s to my right and I’m somewhere in the comfortable middle,” he said.

Unlike Mills, Woodcock or Stimpson, Emery said he would be inclined to run a traditional, or privately funded, campaign as opposed to a publicly funded bid under the Maine Clean Election Act. The taxpayer-funded option for state campaigns does not enjoy universal popularity among GOP members.

“It would have to be traditional,” Emery said. “One of the points that a number of people raise is how can anyone go around the state promising to cut different programs when they’re getting their million dollars upfront for their campaign. There is an intellectual disconnect to that.”

The number of unenrolled candidates who want to run publicly financed campaigns for governor is also growing. On Monday, Bangor resident Alex Hammer filed papers with the ethics commission, joining Bobby Mills of Biddeford and Nancy Oden of Jonesboro.

Former 1998 Green Independent party gubernatorial candidate Pat LaMarche is said also to be weighing a bid against Baldacci who currently is unopposed within the Democratic Party.