STATE POLITICS Cianchette expected to challenge Baldacci again BY LANCE TAPLEY

Peter Cianchette of South Portland, the Republican candidate who lost the gubernatorial race in 2002, says he expects to announce shortly whether he will try to take on Democratic Governor John Baldacci in 2006. All indications are that he will. "I find this race very compelling," he admits.

Cianchette has been energized by an opinion poll he commissioned that, like other recent polls, shows Baldacci’s popularity has sunk. "Maine people agree we need a change in Augusta," he says. Polls show that Baldacci’s support has declined most dramatically in the economically beleaguered Second Congressional District, the Bangor-born governor’s home territory.

In the last election, Baldacci got 47 percent of the vote, Cianchette 41 percent, Green Independent Party candidate Jonathan Carter nine percent, and independent John Michael two percent. Since much of the news media anointed Baldacci the prohibitive front-runner from the start, Cianchette was widely considered to have performed well in his first run for major office. Baldacci was a well-known congressman and Cianchette a virtually unknown former state representative (though he is from a prominent Maine business family). Cianchette has since become a Republican national committeeman, and last year he ran President George W. Bush’s Maine re-election campaign.

In 2002, there was an end-of-campaign swing to Cianchette, his pollster at the time, Bowdoin government professor and Republican Chris Potholm, says: "We would have beaten Baldacci, but Peter had a hard time raising money because the business community thought Baldacci was inevitable, and the press thought he was inevitable." Baldacci outspent Cianchette $1.6 million to $1.4 million.

Cianchette says he will defer outlining his platform until he makes a formal announcement. In 2002, he ran as a typical Republican fiscal conservative.

Many political observers feel he comes across well as a candidate on a personal level, and now he has high name recognition. "He’s hard-working and likeable, and now he’s been around the block once," says Potholm.

"He’s a very polite, friendly person, approachable, with a good sense of humor," says erstwhile opponent Jonathan Carter. He adds: "He has a good chance of beating" Baldacci.

Former United States Representative David Emery of Rockland has already announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination. Others frequently discussed as Republican contenders include State Senator Peter Mills of Cornville, businessman Kevin Hancock of Casco, Senate Minority Leader Paul Davis of Sangerville, and State Representative Darlene Curley of Scarborough.

The Green Independent Party plans to field a candidate. One possibility is 1998 gubernatorial contender Pat LaMarche of Yarmouth, who last year was the Green Party’s national vice-presidential candidate, and who was elected for a two-year term as one of six co-chairs of the national Green Party of the United States at their annual meeting in Tulsa, Oklahoma last weekend. She says she hasn’t made up her mind whether she will run.