Baldacci-Miller debate to kick off Dem convention

AUGUSTA – Gov. John Baldacci, who has begun airing campaign advertising in his bid for re-election, is matched up in debate with little known Democratic primary challenger Christopher Miller tonight as the Democratic State Convention opens.

The debate will be televised by the Maine Public Broadcasting Network, which scheduled a similar showdown for three Republican hopefuls Thursday night.

Voting on June 13 will award this year’s gubernatorial nominations to candidates of the Democratic, Republican and Green Independent parties.

The Baldacci-Miller matchup is generally regarded as a lopsided warm-up for the incumbent.

A veteran of 12 years in the state Senate and eight years in the U.S. House of Representatives, Baldacci took 238,179 votes for 47.1 percent of the total in the 2002 general election for governor, besting Republican Peter Cianchette’s 209,496 votes, which measured 41.5 percent.

Green Independent candidate Jonathan Carter won 46,903 votes, for 9.3 percent, and independent John Michael received 10,612 votes, or 2.1 percent.

Now, in a television ad listing administration accomplishments, Baldacci declares, “A lot’s been done. But I’m not satisfied.”

As chief executive, Baldacci hardly needs to depend on paid advertising alone to maintain a public presence. On Thursday, his office schedule included stops at a breakfast in Bangor, a state retirees gathering in Augusta, a Blaine House reception, an international trade day awards ceremony in Orono, an underage drinking summit in Bangor and five bill signings.

Next Monday, former President Bill Clinton is to join Baldacci at an evening reception in South Portland. The $500-a-head fundraiser benefits the governor’s re-election effort.

Miller, who lives in Gray, was an activist in the 2004 presidential campaign of Dennis Kucinich, the congressman from Ohio who placed third in Maine’s precinct caucuses behind eventual Democratic nominee John Kerry, the U.S. senator from Massachusetts, and Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont.

“I think I’m doing really well,” Miller said Thursday, describing positive responses to his call for local decision-making as a way to counter global problems.

An Internet service provider who has not run for office before, Miller said his candidacy promoting decentralization and a democratic economy is both an opportunity and a responsibility.

“If Maine is to build a democratic economy, we must break up the centralized public bureaucracy that has evolved to serve corporate power, organized money and the established political class,” Miller says in a statement of candidacy posted on his Web site.

“We’ll have to push power and resources out from Augusta, into our local communities and bioregions. We’ll have to empower our citizens to make decisions about local resources, not the lobbyists in Augusta. No more end runs by corporate predators. A democratic economy is a decentralized, local economy,” Miller says.

Through late April, Baldacci had reported raising nearly $384,000 in campaign contributions. Miller reported raising $2,740.

Baldacci’s fortunes this November figure to depend not just on who wins a three-way Republican contest but also on how successful Green Independent Party’s Pat LaMarche and independents including state Rep. Barbara Merrill of Appleton are in capturing segments of the general electorate.

To date, so-called third party candidates are not seen likely to be genuinely competitive with Baldacci and a Republican nominee chosen from a field that includes former U.S. Rep. David Emery, state Sen. Peter Mills of Cornville and state Sen. Chandler Woodcock of Farmington.

But Maine has been fertile ground for outsider campaigns in modern times, as voters have elected independent governors in three elections going back to 1974 – James Longley once and Angus King twice. And since the adoption of optional public financing a decade ago, nontraditional candidates have had a new avenue of access to significant financial resources.

On the Net: Maine Democratic Party: www.mainedems.org; Baldacci campaign: www.

baldacciforgovernor.com; Miller campaign: www.mainecommon

wealth.com.