Posted on 02/06/2004 4:52:07 PM PST by Indy Pendance
AUGUSTA, Maine, Feb. 6 (UPI) -- Front-running Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., stands in good stead for Maine's Democratic presidential caucuses Sunday, having captured the two endorsements from state officials.
On Sunday, voters out of Maine's 1.3 million citizens -- 97 percent of whom are white -- will have more than 400 caucus stations open to them in the only contest to that day. "It's a lot," state party Communications Director Chris Harris told United Press International.
According to the Maine Democratic Party Web site, its caucus Sunday will be run much the same way as Iowa's, the first race of the season, which was Jan. 19. Attendees will gather in areas of the room at each station set aside for their candidate. Undecideds also will have their own area. Each group will then be added up, absentee ballots will be figured in, and the percentages of support among each candidate will decide how many state delegates that group can select. The caucus-goers then will vote for the 35 delegates they will send to the state's convention, scheduled for May 21-23.
Among registered voters the largest percentage -- 38 percent -- are independents, followed by Democrats and Republicans, Harris said.
Democratic officials estimate 15,000 people could participate in Sunday's caucus, the Portland Press Herald reported Friday.
Kerry picked up two endorsements Thursday as he traveled the state seeking support. Maine Gov. John Baldacci endorsed Kerry in a rally in Portland, telling the audience Kerry is "the best candidate in the Democratic field to challenge George Bush" and "a friend to all Mainers."
Baldacci, who had been in a car accident Wednesday, called the rally to announce his endorsement.
Kerry also garnered an endorsement from former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell, who sent an open letter to the state's Democrats Thursday announcing his support.
"Our children's futures will be decisively affected by what happens in November. It is critically important that we Democrats nominate and support our best and strongest candidate.
"I urge you to join me in supporting Senator John Kerry for president of the United States," he wrote.
Neither of Maine's two congressmen, Thomas Allen and Michael Michaud, has endorsed a candidate, and the state's senators are both Republicans.
Like the nine other states that have had caucuses or primaries thus far, Maine is expecting record turnout for the event. More absentee ballots had been sent in by Thursday than the state had voters in either 2002 or 2000, Harris said.
But because Maine is such a small state, and its caucus is sandwiched between presidential contests in significantly larger states on Saturday and Tuesday, candidate campaigning in the state is likely to be at a minimum.
Kerry campaigned there Thursday, but is scheduled to spend the weekend campaigning in Michigan, Virginia and Tennessee. Howard Dean, a former governor from nearby Vermont, and Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich are scheduled to campaign in the state Sunday.
Neither former Gen. Wesley Clark, who eked out a narrow victory in Oklahoma Tuesday, nor Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., who won South Carolina Tuesday, plan to head to Maine before the primary. A staff member at Al Sharpton's headquarters in New York said she was not sure whether Sharpton would go to Maine before the caucus.
But, Harris told UPI, "for a brief moment in time, all eyes will be on Maine."
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