United States Senate Seal (Photo credit: DonkeyHotey)

At 5:00 pm yesterday, the deadline for candidates to appear on the June 12 primary ballot officially passed. There is no dearth of folks looking to fill Sen. Olympia Snowe’s seat in the U.S. Senate.

Democrats:

• Matt Dunlap, former secretary of state for Maine
• State Senator Cynthia Dill
• State Rep. John Hinck

Republicans:

• Secretary of State Charlie Summers
• Attorney General William Schneider
• State Treasurer Bruce Poliquin
• State Sen. Debra Plowman
• Rick Bennett ,former Maine Senate President
• Scott D’Ambroise, a  Tea Party candidate who entered the race before Snowe announced her retirement

The big candidate, though, is former independent governor Angus King. King’s background in the public and private sectors appeals to both Republicans and Democrats.

Early polling suggests King is the clear front-runner in the race, which probably explains why no prominent Democrats are running against him. In 2010, the Democratic vote in the state was split between a Democrat and an Independent candidate, allowing a Republican to take the Governor’s mansion with a mere 39% of the vote.

Now that the collecting of signatures is over with, Mainiacs are in for three months of primary campaigning. With nine candidates in that nominating race, it may prove to be almost as entertaining as watching the Republican presidential candidates early on, when we were placing bets on who was going to be the Republican flavor-of-the-week.

Good Luck, Maine. May Civility reign.

Related articles

• Retirement Throws Maine’s Senate Race Into ‘Chaos’ – New York Times (nytimes.com)
• King Leads in Maine Senate Race (politicalwire.com)
• ME-Sen: Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree won’t run for Senate (dailykos.com)