PORTLAND – Maine’s Barack Obama campaign has announced the formation of a group calling itself “Maine Republicans for Obama.”

The group is headed by former Maine Republican Party Chairman Robert Monks and former Republican state Rep. Sherry Huber.

At a press conference Wednesday in Portland, Monks and Huber spoke in support of Obama in his campaign against Republican John McCain.

Maine Republican Party leaders said Wednesday afternoon in a press release that they have not considered Monks a Republican in years.

“If Bob Monks is the kind of player the Obama campaign wants to associate with, they can have him,” said Mark Ellis, state party chairman, in a prepared statement. “Monks has a long career of attacking Republicans, even Maine’s beloved U.S. Sen. Margaret Chase Smith. Monks’ kind of tactics and games are not something with which the Republican Party wishes to associate. Republicans haven’t considered Bob Monks a Republican in years.”

Monks made an unsuccessful run in the primary for the U.S. Senate against incumbent Republican Sen. Margaret Chase Smith in 1972. He made another unsuccessful attempt as a Republican at the U.S. Senate in 1996.