AUGUSTA — Gov.-elect Paul LePage, who expressed confidence last month that he would complete his Cabinet appointments by the end of 2010, has fallen behind schedule and named only four of his 15 nominees to head state departments.

The Republican, who will be sworn into office Wednesday, has announced his nominees to lead the two departments that oversee public safety, security, state finances and parks. Still pending are appointments for commissioners of the state’s largest departments, such as Health and Human Services, Transportation and Education.

LePage’s spokesman Dan Demeritt said Monday that candidates are still being interviewed and LePage hopes to name six or seven more appointees by the end of this week or early next week. He would not say which departments are involved, so candidates for the commissioners’ positions can be contacted first.

LePage has invited potential candidates to apply through his transition website, and has approached others and asked them to apply. But Demeritt said the process has gone slower than expected because some of the most qualified candidates also are in demand in other states.

“We’re finding that some choice candidates, some of whom we’ve interviewed, were also being sought in other states with Republican-elected governors,” said Demeritt. LePage said during one of his Cabinet announcements that his staff was finding that candidates for Maine jobs were also being considered in a half-dozen other states.

Another factor is the change of parties in control in the State House, where Republican-backed officials haven’t been in such demand for years. The last Republican governor, John McKernan, was re-elected to his second term in 1990.

Demeritt said that once LePage resumes naming appointees, he won’t be far off the pace of previous governors as they took office. In the case of LePage’s immediate predecessor, he’s right.

Democratic Gov. John Baldacci had announced only three Cabinet nominees by the day after Christmas in 2002, and another a few days into 2003 as his inauguration neared. Even after the appointments were completed, the confirmation process went on for months, with lawmakers still voting on nominees into March 2003.

In December, LePage named Sawin Millett, who has served in key administrative posts under three previous governors, as his choice for commissioner of the Department of Administration and Financial Services.

He nominated William Beardsley, one of LePage’s GOP gubernatorial primary opponents, as conservation commissioner.

LePage also said Maj. Gen. John Libby has agreed to stay on as commissioner of the Department of Defense, Veterans and Emergency Management.

John Morris, the former Waterville police chief who was LePage’s gubernatorial campaign chief of staff, is LePage’s choice for commissioner of the Department of Public Safety.