AUGUSTA – The Maine Green Independent Party is putting a priority on energizing its local and county committees and building party strength in the state’s rural areas, the party chair said Monday after its weekend convention.

About 55 members of Maine’s third officially recognized party convened Saturday in Yarmouth, where they took up party business including choosing delegates who will attend the national Green Party Convention July 10-13 in Chicago.

The state Green gathering was also visited by two of the party’s four candidates for president, Jesse Johnson and Kat Swift. Candidate Cynthia McKinney was represented by a local speaker and Kent Mesplay sent a letter to the convention.

McKinney, a former Democrat who was also a Georgia congresswoman, won more than 80 percent of the votes at the Maine Green party’s caucuses earlier this year.

Green party candidates for state and local offices also addressed the crowd.

The Maine Greens claim one of the strongest statewide organizations in the country. The party’s Pat LaMarche finished with 10 percent of the vote in the 2006 gubernatorial election and in 2004 was the national Green Party’s candidate for vice president.

The Maine Greens have had lawmakers serve in the Legislature. In this year’s elections, they have three candidates in state Senate races and 10 others in races for the House of Representatives, according to filings with the Secretary of State.

The Maine Greens are allotted 44 votes at the national party’s convention, the second-largest number of any state behind California. Half that number is elected or appointed by party leaders, and each in turn will have a proxy vote to account for the other half, said state party chair Lynn Williams of Bar Harbor.

The party this year is emphasizing party building at the local level, Williams said Monday.

“We’re committed to energizing local committees and county committees,” Williams said. “It’s time for us to reach out into some of the more rural areas where we have strong membership.”

Williams said the party did not make changes in its platform, which stresses grassroots democracy, social justice, ecological balance and nonviolent approaches to resolving conflicts.