[Insert Candidate Here] in 2006!

The BDN examines some of the "maybes" to run against Baldacci in 2006.

So far away from Election Day, the potential cast of contenders is long.

On the Republican side, the "maybe" list includes the party's 2002 nominee, Peter Cianchette, former 2nd Congressional District candidate Brian Hamel, Senate Minority Leader Paul Davis, and even U.S. Sen. Susan Collins... and many more names have been bandied about, including Kevin Hancock, the president of Hancock Lumber Co. in Casco, as well as state Sens. Kevin Raye of Perry and Carol Weston of Montville...

Whoever decides to run - unless they are independently wealthy - will need to make up their minds by September of this year in order to raise enough money to be competitive against a sitting governor, Hodgkins said.
In the 2002 governor's race Baldacci, Cianchette and Carter spent more than $3.2 million combined.

The only thing, besides Baldacci's candidacy, that seems certain is the potential for a three-way race, with Maine's Green Independent Party poised to lose its official status unless it fields a candidate who earns more than 5 percent of the vote in either the governor's race or the race for U.S. Senate - the only statewide contests on the 2006 ballot.

Several names have been mentioned as possible Green candidates for governor, including preservationist and Burt's Bees co-founder Roxanne Quimby and Pat LaMarche, the Green vice presidential nominee in 2004.

In other news, ("Lessons taught by Muskie desperately needed today") Washington needs to be more like Maine.

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