By Heather Garlich
Congressional Quarterly

Electoral votes: 4

Delegates: 33

C-chairmen: Rep. John Baldacci and Gwethalyn Phillips

Hotel: Sheraton Universal (818) 980-1212

1996 Election:
Clinton – 52%
Dole – 31%
Perot – 14%

The most prominent member of the Maine delegation to the Democratic National Convention is George J. Mitchell. The former Senate majority leader, who served in the chamber from 1980 until his retirement in 1995, was mentioned on many observers' short lists of possible vice presidential picks for Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore.

Though Mitchell has been out of elective politics since he left Congress, he has stayed in the public eye. He was the lead mediator in the peace process that has led to tentative self-government for the British province of Northern Ireland. Turning to a more esoteric topic, Mitchell recently headed a panel that recommended ways for Major League Baseball to rescue financially failing franchises.

Though it has been years since Maine stood out as one of the premier strongholds of Yankee Republicans, the centrist tendencies of its voters mean the state is hardly a sure thing for the Democrats.

President Clinton did cruise to an easy 52 percent to 31 percent victory in Maine over Republican Bob Dole four years ago, but that was an anomaly. When Clinton carried the state in 1992, he did so with a 39 percent plurality over independent Ross Perot and the Republican incumbent, George Bush.

In 1988, Maine went for Bush, who has long vacationed with his family - including son George W. Bush, this year's Republican presidential nominee - at Kennebunkport on the coast of Maine.

So the Maine Democrats at their party's national convention in Los Angeles will be trying to show united support for their standard bearer, Vice President Al Gore, while tempering ideological differences within their ranks between liberals and moderates.

This year's delegation encompasses a wide variety of social views. But Maine Democratic Party Executive Director Barbara Raths said, "It is through the party process that people become less fractionalized."

Gwethalyn Phillips, chairman of the Maine Democratic Party and co-chairman of the state's convention delegation, said she hoped this year's platform would take the same centrist, "New Democrat" approach applied in 1996, when the Clinton-Gore ticket successfully sought re-election. "I think our delegation is pretty much where it was four years ago," she said.

The desire to pursue traditional Democratic social causes remains strong in some delegates, though. Molly Pitcher, who describes herself as the "delegation's grandmother," has been a Democratic delegate or attendee at each convention since 1960 and contends that the nation may be backsliding on issues involving race relations.

"We cannot compare the social issues of today with the past," she said. "People have changed quite a bit. But I think we have slipped back a ways in civil rights, where there are more divisions than there were 15 years ago."

Pitcher said she is a supporter of a national health care plan because of the lack of insurance coverage for many Americans and the increasing numbers of older people. "So much of our citizenry is getting older [and] are not big wage earners," she said.

Though the Clinton years have been marred by controversy, Gore delegates interviewed by Congressional Quarterly indicated that the nation's economic strength over the past eight years makes the outgoing president a net plus for Gore.

"I don't see Clinton's support [for Gore] as a detriment," Pitcher said. "But I do think that Gore is trying to be his own man."

Out of the state's 33 delegates - allotted on the basis of a March 7 primary easily won by Gore - seven are designated as supporters of former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley.

David Garrity, president of the Maine Gay and Lesbian Political Alliance and a convention delegate, said he originally backed Bradley because he had a "stronger proactive stance on gay issues" than Gore. Garrity said he believes greater Democratic representation in Congress would strengthen attention to gay issues.

The two Democratic members of Maine's congressional delegation, Reps. Tom Allen and John Baldacci, are delegates; both are strongly favored for re-election this year. Baldacci, a delegation co-chairman with Phillips, is considered a possible contender for governor in 2002.

Facing longer odds this November is another delegate, state Sen. Mark Lawrence, who has taken on the tall order of challenging moderate Republican Sen. Olympia J. Snowe, a longtime fixture of Maine congressional politics.

"Lawrence has an uphill battle," Phillips said, "but we're not saying it's not possible."

MAINE NOTABLES: Former Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell; Rep. John Baldacci, co-chairman of the Maine delegation; Rep. Tom Allen; state Sen. Mark Lawrence, the Democratic nominee in this year's U.S. Senate race against Republican incumbent Olympia J. Snowe; Gwethalyn Phillips, chairman of the state Democratic Party and co-chairman of Maine's convention delegation; former Gov. Kenneth M. Curtis; state Treasurer Dale McCormick; state House Speaker Libby Mitchell; David Garrity, president of the Maine Gay and Lesbian Political Alliance.