Riding the crest of a Democratic surge at the polls Tuesday, John Elias Baldacci declared victory shortly after 12:30 a.m. in his bid to become Maine’s 73rd governor.

“I want to thank the people of Maine,” said the 47-year-old Bangor native. “The people of Maine have listened. They’ve spent time questioning the candidates and they’ve involved and engaged us in a lot of one-on-one discussions.”

With 81 percent of 652 precincts reporting, Baldacci carried 47.7 percent of the vote, followed by South Portland Republican Peter Cianchette with 41 percent, Green Independent Party candidate Jonathan Carter of Lexington Township with 9.2 percent and Auburn independent John Michael with 2.2 percent.

“Mainers have turned out in overwhelming numbers across the state and we’re very proud of the citizen participation … Our citizens are number one,'” Baldacci said in a victory speech at his family’s restaurant in Bangor.

Cianchette called Baldacci shortly before 12:30 a.m. to concede the race and later addressed supporters in Portland at the Portland Regency Hotel.

“Maine has heard us and they’re going to continue to hear the message that we brought, but despite our best efforts I believe that the numbers will prove that we’ve done very well in the 1st District,” Cianchette said. “Unfortunately we’re going to fall a little bit short in the 2nd District.”

Baldacci extended a special thanks to outgoing Gov. Angus S. King for his efforts in guiding the state on economic issues. As his supporters began a night of celebration, Baldacci warned there still were serious challenges ahead.

“We’re not going to finish celebrating until we’re able to finish the work of making sure that every single Maine citizen has quality affordable health care,” he said. “Not until every single Maine person has an opportunity for a good-paying job with benefits here in the state.”

Although Maine historically has a high voter turnout in presidential races, its recent track record for off-year elections has been less impressive. In 1998, only 44 percent of all registered voters cast ballots in the gubernatorial election. That number was higher in the 1994 gubernatorial race when 54.5 percent of the voters turned out at the polls.

Maine pollsters and election watchers did not expect statewide turnout to exceed 50 percent after wet, slushy snow was dumped on parts of the state on Election Day morning.

But election clerks across the state reported average or above average turnout Tuesday.

The Blaine House race may have begun as early as 1998 for John Baldacci, who was making numerous stops at Democratic functions in southern Maine, outside his 2nd District constituency. Appearing at events such as an award ceremony honoring his cousin, former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell, at the University of Southern Maine, the 47-year-old retiring congressman worked quietly behind the scenes to build support in the 1st District, where he was scarcely known.

The son of Italian and Lebanese parents, Baldacci’s ethnic heritage and restaurant background have been recurring themes in his campaign – and not always pleasant ones. Baldacci is not above making humorous references to his Italian roots and exploiting the family’s pasta recipes as the main entree at Democratic fund-raisers.

But he saw nothing funny in what his supporters considered a negative attack ad linking his views on gambling with organized crime. The television ad barely was seen in northern Maine since it was targeted at the southern part of the state, where Maine Indian tribes have proposed building a $650 million casino and resort. Launched by Green Independent Party candidate Jonathan Carter, the ad pointed out that Baldacci had supported a casino for the Passamaquoddy Tribe in 1993 while a state senator, but it failed to indicate that Baldacci was opposed to the current plan. It also featured catch phrases from the HBO organized crime series “The Sopranos” while making its point that gangsters were synonymous with gambling.

A number of Democratic and not-so-Democratic groups rallied to Baldacci’s defense, claiming he was a victim of ethnic stereotyping. The ad stopped running and Carter apologized to anyone who claimed to be offended, but he insisted the casino ad only was intended to run for a week and did not apologize for its content.

Cianchette, a 41-year-old South Portland businessman, managed to make up for a lot of lost ground in the name recognition department as the state’s Republican nominee. Some polls, even those circulated by Baldacci’s own consultants, showed the Republican closing the gap to within single digits of the Democrat during the last week of the election. A moderate in the mold of GOP U.S. Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, Cianchette made state spending and Maine’s crushing tax burden twin pillars of his campaign, lashing out at majority Democrats in the Maine Legislature and blaming them for pushing through social service programs the state no longer can afford.

Jonathan Carter, the Green Independent Party candidate, became the first gubernatorial bidder to run a publicly funded campaign under Maine’s Clean Elections Act. A persistent player in Maine politics since 1992 when he ran as a Green for Maine’s 2nd Congressional District against Rep. Olympia J. Snowe and the party’s candidate for governor in 1994, Carter lives east of Kingfield in Lexington Township in a 150-year-old renovated farmhouse that belies his affluent and comfortable upbringing.

Adopting a populist approach to politics, Carter allied himself with the burgeoning environmental movement and later promoted programs advocating greater corporate responsibility in creating jobs that provided a “livable wage.”

Carter continued that philosophical lean with a campaign that featured a single-payer health care system for Mainers as its centerpiece. He also favored revising the state’s tax policies by expanding the sales tax to currently exempt goods and services while lowering local property taxes.

John Michael, a former Auburn Democrat who became an independent, staged a one-man campaign for office. With less than $10,000, compared to nearly $1 million or more spent by his opponents, he tried to capitalize on television debates where his arch-conservative views on issues such as gay rights and abortion set him apart from the other candidates.

Michael acknowledged that he didn’t expect to win and offered his candidacy as a protest vote for those who were tired of “politics as usual.”