The candidates have been chosen. The races are set. Now comes the battle for the Legislature.

With 186 open seats in the Legislature, both parties combined to leave 14 races uncontested. Democrats didn’t draft candidates in 10 seats, while Republicans are leaving four spots blank, two in Portland.

The deadline has expired to find replacement candidates who withdrew from legislative races after the June primary. According to the Secretary of State Office, the 48 candidates who withdrew this year was the most in recent history.

Nonetheless, officials in both parties said recruitment efforts were at an all-time high. At stake is control of the Legislature, and potentially, the future of Gov. Paul LePage’s policy agenda.

Republicans hold a 77-70 lead in the House, which also has two unenrolled members and two seats vacant. The Senate has 19 Republicans, 15 Democrats and one unenrolled member.

Democratic Party Chairman Ben Grant said energy within the party is high thanks to an “extreme agenda” advanced by LePage and the current Republican majority. Grant said the party was targeting between 30 to 40 races in the House of Representatives and approximately 10 in the Senate.

Assuming control of both chambers is within reach, Grant said.

Maine GOP Chairman Charlie Webster, however, isn’t buying it. Webster said Democrats had recruited “far left” candidates that can’t relate to Mainers. 

“They’ve gone out and recruited a bunch people from Occupy Maine and the Maine People’s Alliance (a progressive advocacy group),” Webster said. “Somebody who protests in Occupy Maine probably isn’t going to win any district outside of Portland.”

He added, “We’ve gone out and recruited a bunch of blue-collar people, plumbers, waitresses, truck drivers, teachers, hairdressers — people Mainers can relate to.”

Officials in the GOP also noted that Democrats failed to draft candidates in 10 districts, including Senate District 12, a seat currently held by Democrat Sen. Bill Diamond, of Windham. The absence of a Democrat would appear to give Republican hopeful James Hamper the inside track to victory. 

However, Grant said that in some cases local Democratic county committees made the decision not to put forward a candidate, believing that an unenrolled candidate will caucus with Democrats.

Of the 10 races that Democrats didn’t field a candidate, five races feature an independent. 

Webster said Democrats were trying to fool voters into supporting independents that are actually Democrats.

“I think it’s a strategy, but I don’t think it’s a winning strategy.

In Senate District 12, unenrolled candidate Martin Shuer will take on Hamper. In House District 42, which represents Waldo and Winterport, former Democratic representative Joseph Brooks is running as an independent against Republican contender Leo LaChance. Brooks served three terms as a Democrat between 1997 and 2002. 

James Campbell, a former Republican, served four terms in House District 138, which represents Alfred and Limerick. Campbell is now running as an independent against Republican Judee Meyer.

“Our team is motivated and confident that Maine voters will want to send more Republicans to Augusta to become part of the solution that is working,” said House Speaker Robert Nutting, R-Oakland, adding that “small-business owners, farmers, fishermen, and teachers – people from every walk of life” are among the candidates.

Legislative campaigns are unusually intense this year, with Democrats hoping to wrest back control from Republicans majorities. Democrats had enjoyed control of Maine for much of the last few decades.

Republicans say they’re hoping to build on a record of easing state regulations, tax cuts, paring welfare programs and other changes they made during the current two-year session, the first in nearly a half century in which there was a GOP House, Senate and governor at the same time.

This story will be updated.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

 

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