BANGOR – Political observers interested in competitive races may have to wait until the fall when it comes to Penobscot County, where candidates in all county office races are running unopposed.

All six of the positions, which include the county’s top prosecutor and law enforcement officer, have a single candidate running for the office. Officially on the ballots, there’s no competition within the parties or between them come the primaries on Tuesday.

Although there has been competition in the past for many of the positions, representatives from the Republican and Democratic parties said they found it difficult to field candidates this year for a variety of reasons.

Bangor resident Gwethalyn Phillips, a longtime Democratic state party leader, and Harrison Clark, a Republican activist and treasurer of the Penobscot County Republican Committee, said that there aren’t any major county issues to galvanize the parties and bring out prospective candidates.

They said that county government, considered a major force in some states, could get overlooked here in Maine where municipal elections and larger state and federal elections take more precedence.

“The county government has little identity for most people,” Phillips said.

And then there is the fear factor.

All but one of the six county races involve an incumbent, and squaring off against an incumbent may cause someone to pause and reconsider, Clark said.

With no clean election funds available to county races, a first-time candidate without the incumbent’s visibility may be reluctant to enter a race with such formidable hurdles, he said on Thursday.

“If you’re a newcomer, that’s very intimidating,” Clark said.

Despite all these obstacles, the two political parties are expected to mount write-in candidacies for at least some of the Penobscot County races that could set the stage for competition in the November election.

But to do that, write-in candidates must garner twice the number of votes that the number of signatures that the listed candidates were required to get in order to be on the ballot. County commissioner candidates need 50 signatures, while the other county elected offices need at least 150 signatures.

In Penobscot County, the offices up for election are:

. Judge Allan Woodcock, a Republican, is seeking reelection as judge of probate, a post he’s held for 43 years.

. R. Christopher Almy, a Democrat, is the incumbent county district attorney seeking reelection to the office he’s held since 1985.

. Penobscot County Sheriff Glenn Ross, a Republican, is seeking a second term.

. Dan Tremble, a Democrat and former Bangor City Councilor, is seeking a first term as Penobscot County treasurer after the former treasurer, a Republican, chose not to run.

. Susan Bulay, a Republican and Penobscot County register of deeds since 1995, is seeking another term in office.

. Stephen Stanley, a Medway Democrat, is running for county commissioner, a position he was appointed to in 2004. He filled in the remainder of the term of Dick Blanchard, who left to become a state legislator.