BANGOR – The city’s most active and experienced Democrats haven’t seen anything like it – two presidential candidates in Penobscot County the day before the caucus.

They also have never been so undecided.

Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York will speak on Saturday morning at the University of Maine in Orono, and Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois will hold a rally that afternoon a few miles down the road at the Bangor Auditorium.

Jim Martin, chairman of the Penobscot County Democratic Committee, plans to attend both events and deliver caucus packets to conveners in between. A record 63 communities in the county will hold Democratic caucuses Sunday afternoon. Democrats in all but a handful of townships and plantations in the county will caucus, he said.

“A month or two ago no one expected Maine would still be in play” Martin, who lives in Orono, said Thursday. “There’s been a growing and mounting excitement across state as we’ve seen this incredibly competitive primary going well beyond Super Tuesday to include states like us. To have Hillary [Clinton] and [Barack] Obama here is a plus for everyone. It’s pretty exciting.”

Martin, like many Democrats in Maine and elsewhere, is waiting until the last minute to decide which candidate he’ll support. That was not the case four years ago when he was an early supporter of former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean.

“This year, I’m really torn between the two equally,” he said. “If they were on the ticket together, they’d be unstoppable in November.”

This year is the first year since 1972 that Gwethalyn Phillips of Bangor has not actively worked for a Democratic candidate in a presidential primary or caucus. A former chairwoman of the state party, Phillips won’t be able to attend either event Saturday but she will attend the local caucus on Sunday.

An early supporter of Bill Clinton in 1992, she too is still undecided.

“I’m thinking about wearing a big button to the caucus that says ‘both,'” he said. “I’ve been so happy with the field from the beginning and so delighted with these two to choose from. I can’t wait to start campaigning for either one. I could be uncommitted. I just keep going back and forth.”

Because of the move to include so many states in the vote on Super Tuesday, campaigns simply did not make the local contacts and set up organizations in Maine as they have in the past, she said. Although Maine has not had a lot of national media attention in years past, campaigns did work with local Democratic activists to get supporters to caucuses.

“Because of Super Tuesday,” she said, “campaigns have not had the resources to cultivate states further down the food chain. In years past, if people wanted to be in touch with a campaign, there was a lot more opportunity. I’m not saying you can’t find out about the candidates, because clearly the debates have been very good, but it’s been a very different year for Maine Democrats in terms of how campaigns are organized and how candidates organize.”

Bangor City Councilor Gerry Palmer won’t be able to see candidate Clinton because he’ll be at a city Democratic Committee meeting getting ready for the caucus. Palmer said he had made up his mind and would stand in Clinton’s corner on Sunday at the Civic Center, where the Bangor caucus is being held.

“This year is really unique,” he said. “Every delegate is worth its weight in gold. Who knew? We all thought Super Tuesday would nail this thing down and it has not done that. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a battle quite this ferocious.”

He will be free Saturday afternoon to attend Obama’s rally.

“I’ve seen Hillary speak before and she is my choice,” he said, “but I would like to listen to Barack. From what I’ve seen on television, he’s a spectacular speaker.”

Maine House Majority Leader Joshua Tardy of Newport said Thursday that he’ll be working in his law office Saturday but added that the tag-team visit was a good thing for Maine and the opposition party.

“It just shows that delegates are precious commodities on the Democratic side,” he said. “The fact that they both are making visits after Super Tuesday is a function of how close the race is.”

Tardy said that he was not aware of any counterdemonstrations planned by GOP front-runner Sen. John McCain of Arizona. That campaign is focused on the next set of primaries and caucuses, he said.

Maine Republicans held their caucuses last weekend, when former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won with 52 percent of the vote. Romney dropped out of the race Thursday, however, effectively sealing the Republican presidential nomination for prohibitive front-runner McCain.

Tardy is vice chairman of the McCain campaign in Maine.

“I’m interested enough to watch the news clips [of the Democrats] on TV,” Tardy said Thursday, “but, as far as I’m concerned, they’re fighting for the honor of who comes in second in November.”

jharrison@bangordailynews.net

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