2006 legislative races

This year’s legislative races feature 26 candidates in the primaries: six in the Senate and 20 in the House.

More than a dozen of the candidates are former legislators who have been out of office for at least two years.

Maine’s term limits law, which holds sitting lawmakers to four consecutive two-year terms in the same office, has produced a fairly consistent rotation or recycling of legislative candidates. This year is no exception.

In the House, of the 19 term-limited members, four are running for the Senate. Five members who are not term-limited also are running for the Senate. A total of 113 incumbents are seeking re-election, and 14 members chose not to seek re-election.

In the Senate, 16 of 19 Democratic incumbents plan to run for re-election, compared with 12 of 16 Republicans.

In the Senate, only GOP floor leader Paul Davis was subject to term limits, with other candidates simply choosing not to run. Two sitting GOP senators are running for governor.

Last year, 78 percent of all legislative candidates chose to run publicly funded campaigns under the Maine Clean Elections Act at a total cost of $2.8 million.

Jonathan Wayne, executive director of the state Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices, expects the number to reach 80 percent this year. He estimates around $3 million will be needed to underwrite the costs of House and Senate races.