Gov. John Baldacci (D) Elected 2002, 1st term up Jan. 2007
Born:	Jan. 30, 1955, Bangor
Home:	Augusta
Education:	U. of ME, B.A. 1986
Religion:	Catholic
Marital Status:	married (Karen)
Elected  Office:	Bangor City Cncl., 1978-81; ME Senate, 1982-94; U.S. House of Reps., 1994-2002.
Professional Career:	Restaurateur.
Office	1 State House Station, Augusta 04333, 207-287-3531; Fax: 207-287-1034; Web: www.state.me.us/governor.
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John Baldacci (pronounced ball-DA-chee) in 2002 became the first Democrat elected governor of Maine since 1986. Baldacci grew up in Bangor, then lived across the street from the house he grew up in and still attends the same church where he was christened. His family ran Momma Baldacci's, a restaurant started by his grandparents in 1933. He is of Italian and Lebanese descent, distantly related to former Senator George Mitchell, and the family restaurant used to get a daily delivery of rolls from former Senator William Cohen's father's bakery. Baldacci followed his father on the Bangor City Council in 1978, at 23; in 1982 he was elected to the state Senate, where he often dissented from Democrats and chaired the tax committee. When 2d District Congresswoman Olympia Snowe ran for the Senate in 1994, Baldacci ran for the House and campaigned by holding spaghetti dinners at $2 a head (children under 12 free). Maine's contrary-mindedness came out in the general election: Baldacci opposed the Clinton health care plan and pledged to oppose any new taxes; Republican nominee Richard Bennett was iffy about the Contract With America's defense spending increase. Baldacci won 46%-41%.

In the House, Baldacci had a mostly liberal voting record and chimed in on Maine issues. He was a leader in passing a law allowing drugs to be reimported from Canada and other foreign countries, which then-HHS Secretary Donna Shalala declined to implement. He was reelected three times with more than 70% of the vote.

Maine's congressional districts are good springboards to statewide office, for each one is within both the Portland and Bangor television markets; Baldacci's three immediate predecessors in the 2d District were all elected to the Senate. But Baldacci's goal was the governorship, and he had pledged to serve only eight years in the House. From the time Independent Angus King was elected to a second and last term in 1998, Baldacci was recognized as the frontrunner for 2002. Yet there was plenty of competition. The issues were framed by a New York Times story that said Maine was the most heavily taxed state, with 14% of incomes going to state and local government, and by the state's fiscal woes. Baldacci said he was against tax increases; to spur economic development, he wanted to increase state aid to public schools (to hold down property taxes), slow down the growth of state spending and eliminate the property tax on business equipment. He called for business tax breaks in distressed areas. He said a single-payer health care finance plan was unworkable and said he would set up an Office of Health Policy to coordinate changes in health care finance. Baldacci promised a "balanced economic strategy" with different approaches for rural and urban areas and reiterated his promise to limit spending increases to the rate of inflation. The leading Republican was former state Representative Peter Cianchette, who promised to cut the state tax burden by 20%; he said he would veto any tax increase and "any budget that grows faster than your paychecks." He called for a property tax cap, with no corresponding state aid. Independent candidate Jonathan Carter won the Green party nomination (there was actually a primary) and also qualified for the state's public financing system, which gave him $902,000 but limited his spending, almost as much as Baldacci's and Cianchette's $1.5 million. Carter called for single-payer health insurance and for a sales tax on professional services; like the others he was for eliminating the property tax on business equipment. Carter got the most attention when he ran an ad accusing Baldacci of supporting casino gambling despite his statements to the contrary; the ad featured ominous music and phrases from The Sopranos--ethnic stereotyping, many said.

On Election Day, Baldacci won a 47%-41% plurality over Cianchette; Carter got only 9%. Baldacci won absolute majorities only in the counties north and east of Bangor, and they accounted for 26,000 of his 29,000-vote plurality; interestingly, these same counties were the strongest area that same day for Republican Senator Susan Collins, who is from Aroostook County: Home town voting.

Facing a budget shortfall estimated at $1.2 billion, in 2003 Baldacci and the Democratic legislature managed to pass a balanced two-year budget without a tax increase. Baldacci also got enactment of his Pine Tree Opportunity Zones, to let economically ailing cities and towns offer business tax breaks. The legislature also passed Baldacci's ambitious Dirigo Health plan (Dirigo, the state motto, means "I lead"). Dirigo was designed to provide health insurance policies for low- and middle-income employees of small businesses and those with no employers, with state subsidies of individual premiums; it also authorized caps on medical expansion and fees for the state's 39 hospitals. In spring 2004 Baldacci sought bids from insurers; only one, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, already Maine's largest health insurer, put in a bid. Anthem's DirigoChoice plan started taking enrollments in October 2004, but by spring 2005 enrollment was just over 5,000, representing about 1,200 self-employed people and 400 small businesses. Conservatives criticized the plan as not significantly cheaper than commercial alternatives. Anthem said that their target enrollment was only 10-15,000 by the end of 2005, considerably less than the 31,000 the state hoped to enroll.

In 2004 Baldacci addressed the tax issue, made more pressing by the fact that two ballot propositions were going before the voters--one in June which would require the state to pay 55% of education costs, up from 43%, and the other in November which would limit property taxes to 1% of valuation. The legislature did not act in its spring session, but it did increase state education spending by $340 million in the years 2006-10, but not immediately. In June, 55% of voters approved the education cost requirement, while 63% rejected the property tax limit in November. In December Baldacci presented a tax package: limiting property taxes to 6% of income by state loans, capping spending at all levels at rises in income and inflation and proposing a constitutional amendment to allow towns and cities to freeze property taxes at current levels. Not included were recommendations of Baldacci's economic development commission in January 2004: abolish the personal property tax on new business equipment and reducing the business tax burden to the New England average. In 2003 another commission recommended consolidation of schools; Baldacci proposed that in 2004, but it was rejected 76-53 by the state House. On gambling, Baldacci proposed allowing "racino" gambling at several sites; this was opposed by the owners of the one racetrack already operating slot machines.

Democrats lost ground in the November 2004 elections for state House, leaving their majority at 76-73, with one Green and one independent; they continued to have an 18-17 edge in the state Senate. Baldacci comes up for reelection in 2006. Possible Republican candidates include 2002 nominee Peter Cianchette, state Senate Minority Leader Paul Davis, 2002 congressional candidate Brian Hamel and state Senator Peter Mills.

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent
2002 general	John Baldacci (D)	238,179	47%
	Peter Cianchette (R)	209,496	41%
	Jonathan Carter (Green)	46,903	9%
2002 primary	John Baldacci (D)	unopposed
1998 general	Angus S. King Jr. (I)	246,772	59%
	James B. Longley Jr. (R)	79,716	19%
	Thomas J. Connolly (D)	50,506	12%
	Patricia H. Lamarche (I)	28,722	7%
	Other	15,293	4%