AUGUSTA – In what is likely the state’s most closely watched primary contest, the three men vying for the GOP nomination for governor took the stage Friday – the first day of the Maine Republican State Convention – with each candidate hoping to persuade those in attendance he was the right choice to end Democratic Gov. John Baldacci’s tenure in the Blaine House.

Former U.S. Rep. David Emery and state Sens. Peter Mills and Chandler Woodcock each stressed different attributes during their 20-minute presentations to the estimated 1,700 delegates at the Augusta Civic Center on Friday afternoon.

Emery, a three-term congressman from St. George, said his experience was necessary to reverse Maine’s troubled economic state. Mills, of Cornville, said his ability to build consensus made him the most electable candidate. Woodcock, of Farmington, stressed his fiscal and social conservatism.

“It is only with a leader who can unite everyone that we can win in November,” said Mills, the first candidate to address the convention and the first to assail Baldacci’s Dirigo health program as too costly and ineffective. “I know the soul of the Maine people. I will lead us there.”

Emery, next on the agenda, entered to a sea of red balloons and wasted no time in taking aim at the Baldacci administration for what he called its budget gimmickry and failed tax and health care policies.

“Our state is at a crossroads, and … you know the state is in trouble and we need to fix it,” said Emery, whose booth at the convention featured a large sign reading “Erase Baldacci mistakes.”

Woodcock told the crowd that Maine voters would look to the GOP for “trust and responsibility,” and vowed to shrink state government while improving its efficiency.

“Yes, you can have it both ways,” said Woodcock, who also expressed disapproval of the Baldacci administration’s social agenda. Last year that agenda included support for the new law preventing discrimination against gays and lesbians. In a nod to the conservatives in the audience, Woodcock said he was against “special rights” and further believed marriage was between one man and one woman.

If Friday’s event is any indication, the GOP June primary could be a tight one, with each candidate showing roughly the same level of support based on the size of the crowds who followed them to the stage.

While most of the overt criticism was reserved for Baldacci, the Republican hopefuls and their supporters also tried to draw some distinctions between the GOP candidates.

Emery, the only GOP gubernatorial candidate not using public financing for his campaign, issued a sharp criticism of the Maine Clean Elections Act, calling it “dipping into the till.”

Former state Sen. Rick Bennett of Norway, in introducing Woodcock, noted that he has never lost an election. The comment brought to some minds Emery’s two relatively high-profile defeats – once to Democrat George Mitchell in a 1982 U.S. Senate contest and later to Democrat Tom Andrews in a 1990 run for Congress.

While the GOP’s efforts to retake the Blaine House will garner the most attention this election season, party leaders said they were equally intent on claiming majorities in both the House and Senate.

“We’re on the brink of something great,” declared Assistant House GOP leader Josh Tardy of Newport, who was introduced to the crowd as the next speaker of the House. “People in Maine are sick of the status quo.”

With a few interruptions, Democrats have held control of both chambers for 32 years and now hold a 19-16 edge over Republicans in the Senate and a razor-thin 74-73 edge in the House, which also has one Green Independent and three unenrolled members.

The call for change coming from the first day of the GOP convention received a cool reception from the state’s Democratic leaders.

“If you look at the current state of affairs, things are headed in a positive direction,” said Ben Dudley, the newly named chairman of the Maine Democratic Party. “[Republicans] seem to spend a lot of time painting a gloom-and-doom picture.”

The GOP convention resumes today with featured appearances by U.S. Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins. Snowe is up for re-election this year and will face one of two Democrats vying for that party’s nomination.