AUGUSTA – Still stinging from their lopsided defeat at the polls, Christian fundamentalist groups have all but abandoned efforts to repeal the state’s new gay rights law to instead focus on pushing a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.

“Now that the gay rights movement has prevailed, we will soon hear the call for gay marriage,” a staid Michael Heath of the Christian Civic League of Maine said Wednesday outside the group’s Augusta headquarters. “We must work to see that this never happens.”

Heath and his colleagues at the morning news conference were unclear about the specifics of such an effort, but have indicated they would like any such ballot initiative to coincide with the 2006 re-election bid of Gov. John Baldacci, a major force behind the new anti-discrimination law.

“That will certainly be on the radar screen,” said the Rev. Sandy Williams of Maine Coalition for Marriage, who challenged Baldacci to introduce such a constitutional ban. “This governor, in pushing this law through, will have a lot to answer for.”

To even place the marriage ban on the ballot, however, supporters face a seemingly insurmountable battle to win approval from two-thirds of lawmakers in both houses and then from a majority of Maine voters.

Political scientist Oliver Woshinsky of the University of Southern Maine on Wednesday gave the constitutional amendment “a snowball’s chance in hell” of making it through the Legislature, which is controlled by Democrats and earlier this year soundly rejected such a ban.

The resurfacing of the debate over banning same-sex marriage in Maine comes as Texas on Tuesday became the 19th state to approve a constitutional amendment to that end.

In Maine, however, Baldacci spokesman Lee Umphrey, while reiterating the governor’s opposition to same-sex marriage, said his boss would never support a constitutional ban. The state already has a law defining marriage as between a man and a woman.

“The chances are zero,” said Umphrey, adding that after the Christian Civic League’s drubbing at the polls, he thought it was “kind of funny they thought they could drive the agenda.”

The group’s shift in strategy comes hours after voters soundly defeated Question 1, which would have overturned the new state law prohibiting discrimination against homosexuals in areas including housing, employment and education.

The latest vote totals showed 55 percent of Mainers opposing the repeal, with 45 percent in favor, according to unofficial returns compiled by the Bangor Daily News.

Jesse Connolly of the pro-gay rights group Maine Won’t Discriminate on Wednesday called the new pursuit of a constitutional marriage ban “another example of the Christian Civic League grasping at straws while trying to explain away their overwhelming defeat.”

While Tuesday’s loss might have diminished the League’s political power – particularly on the gay rights issue – the group was successful in gathering more than 50,000 signatures needed to place the matter on the Nov. 8 ballot.

The statewide defeat marked a blow to the anti-gay rights movement, which had enjoyed success as recently as 2000, when voters narrowly rejected a similar law.

Although not totally ruling out another effort to repeal the gay rights law, Williams on Wednesday, citing the groups’ loss just hours before, expressed doubt.

“I don’t think we’re going to be able to mobilize people,” he told reporters after the news conference.

The degree of the religious right’s failure at the 2005 polls was surprising even to the law’s supporters.

As incoming election results assured their victory late Tuesday night, officials with Maine Won’t Discriminate quietly wondered if they were able to prevail in Heath’s hometown of South China (they didn’t).

And they reveled at their victory in Lewiston, the hometown of conservative activist Paul Madore, where voters had consistently rejected past gay rights initiatives.

Madore, the head of the Maine Grassroots Coalition, on Wednesday blamed the collapse of his group’s Lewiston base on the Catholic church’s unwillingness to take a stand on the issue.

“It’s not who voted. It’s who didn’t vote,” said Madore, claiming that some within the heavily Catholic city were conflicted about supporting the repeal effort.

Lewiston was not the only problem area for backers of the repeal, according to unofficial vote tallies from the state’s largest cities.

In Portland and Bangor, 77 percent and 61 percent of respective voters rejected the repeal.

Gay rights opponents had expected to receive – and did, in relative terms – more support in rural areas.

The highest concentration of support came from within Aroostook County, where 60 percent of voters backed the repeal. The highest concentration of opposition came within Cumberland County, where 65 percent of voters rejected the repeal.

In Penobscot County, voters narrowly supported the repeal by 52 percent to 48 percent. While towns including Bangor and Orono showed strong opposition to Question 1, much of the support came from outlying towns including Medway, Kenduskeag and Mattawamkeag.

With the vote over, the law could take effect by the end of the year after state elections officials confirm the results and the governor signs a proclamation certifying them.