AUGUSTA – Maine’s gubernatorial ballot became a little more crowded Monday after independent state Rep. John Michael of Auburn turned in enough voter signatures to qualify as an official candidate.

Meanwhile, an independent bid by former Lewiston Mayor John Jenkins fell considerably short of the mark with 1,312 signatures – about 2,700 shy of the 4,000 signatures required for a nonparty candidate under Maine law.

A week from today, Maine Republicans will choose between Peter Cianchette of South Portland and Jim Libby of Buxton. In November, the GOP nominee will face Michael, Bangor’s Democratic 2nd District congressman, John Baldacci, Green Independent Party hopeful Jonathan Carter of Lexington Township and David Flanagan, a Manchester independent, who qualified for the ballot last week.

Michael’s representatives managed to deliver petitions carrying the signatures of 4,334 voters to the Secretary of State’s Office before Monday’s 5 p.m. deadline. The candidate, however, was unavailable for comment.

Jenkins had hoped many of his signature petitions would arrive at the Secretary of State’s Office in Monday’s mail. When Deputy Secretary of State Julie Flynn announced the deadline had arrived and only 1,312 signatures had been delivered, a crestfallen Jenkins knew his campaign was over.

“[Disappointed?] Yeah, a little bit,” he told reporters. “I just assumed they would do the right thing and send them in here on time. I knew I had the signatures. I’m not quite sure what to say. I guess you wind up a day late and a dollar short when the signatures come in after today. When that door closes, the wagon keeps rolling.”

Monday also marked the deadline for independent candidates wishing to run publicly funded campaigns under Maine’s Clean Elections Act. Although both Michael and Jenkins had expressed a desire to run as publicly funded candidates, neither of the men turned in any of the necessary 2,500 signatures and accompanying $5 checks to qualify under the law.

While Baldacci, Flanagan and Cianchette are running traditional privately funded campaigns, Carter qualified for public funds and will have a little more than $900,000 to compete against the field of challengers. Libby has qualified for a little more than $300,000 in Clean Elections money for the primary and is eligible for more than $700,000 if he wins.

Libby’s campaign received a boost Monday from former independent candidate Steve Kenney of Scarborough, who dropped out of the race last month. Kenney, the only “pro-life” candidate in the race, endorsed Libby as the candidate who would best serve the interests of all Republicans. Libby said Monday it was far too soon to gauge the impact of Michael’s emergence onto the gubernatorial campaign landscape.

“It depends on what kind of money he is able to raise; I’ve heard different things about that, so we’ll just have to find out,” he said.

Cianchette said Michael was something of a mystery candidate to him and that he wasn’t really sure where the state legislator stood on many of the issues facing the voters in November.

“But I think competition is always healthy,” he said. “In many ways, this race has already been full of surprises and I guess this is just another one.”