SAGADAHOC COUNTY
Arrowsic: 1 p.m., Arrowsic Town Hall
Bath: 6 p.m., City Hall Auditorium
Bowdoin: 4 p.m., Bowdoinham Town Hall
Bowdoinham: 4 p.m., Bowdoinham Town Hall
Georgetown: 1:30 p.m., Georgetown School
Phippsburg: 2:30 p.m., Phippsburg Town Hall
Richmond: 4:30 p.m., Richmond Town Hall
Topsham: 5 p.m., Topsham Town Hall
West Bath: 2:30 p.m., West Bath Town Hall
Woolwich: 3 p.m., Woolwich Central School
KNOX COUNTY
Appleton: 3 p.m., Appleton Town Hall
Camden: 1:30 p.m., Camden Opera House
Cushing: 2 p.m., Cushing Community Center
Friendship: 1 p.m., Friendship Town Office
Hope: 2 p.m., Hope Town Library
Matinicus Island: 1 p.m., Hoadley Home
North Haven: 4 p.m., North Haven Town Office
Owl's Head: 2 p.m., Owl's Head Community Center
Rockland: 2:30 p.m., Rockland Town Hall
Rockport: 1:30 p.m., Rockport Town Office
South Thomaston: 2 p.m., South Thomaston Town Office
St. George: 1 p.m., St. George Town Hall
Thomaston: 2 p.m., Watts Hall
Union: 1 p.m., Union Town Hall
Vinalhaven: 2 p.m., Washington School
Warren: 2 p.m., Warren Town Hall
Washington: 4 p.m., Bryant Room, Gibbs Library
LINCOLN COUNTY
Alna: 3:30 p.m., Wiscasset Middle School
Boothbay, Boothbay Harbor, Southport: 2:30 p.m., American Legion Post No. 36, Boothbay
Bremen, Bristol, Damariscotta, Edgecomb, Newcastle, Nobleboro, South Bristol: 1 p.m., Great Salt Bay School, Damariscotta
Dresden, Wiscasset, Westport Island: 3:30 p.m., Wiscasset Middle School
Jefferson, Somerville, Whitefield: 2 p.m., Whitefield Elementary School Waldoboro: 3 p.m., Miller Elementary School
CUMBERLAND COUNTY
Baldwin: 1 p.m., West Baldwin Consolidated School
Bridgton: 2 p.m., Municipal Office Building
Brunswick: 3 p.m., Brunswick Junior High School
Cape Elizabeth: 1:30 p.m., Cape Elizabeth High School
Casco: 4:30 p.m., Casco Fire Barn
Chebeague Island: 1 p.m., Chebeague Island Hall
Cumberland: 1 p.m., Cumberland Town Hall
Falmouth: 1 p.m., Falmouth High School
Freeport: 4 p.m., Freeport High School
Gorham: 1 p.m., Gorham High School Cafeteria
Gray: 1 p.m., Stimpson Hall
Harpswell: 2 p.m., Harpswell Islands School
Harrison: 2 p.m., Harrison Fire Barn
Long Island: 1 p.m., Long Island Community Library Multipurpose Room
Naples: 2 p.m., Naples Town Office
New Gloucester: 2:30 p.m., Congregational Church in the Lower Village
North Yarmouth: 5 p.m., Wescustogo Hall
Otisfield: 1 p.m., Otisfield Town Office
Portland: 2 p.m., Portland High School
Pownal: 1 p.m., Pownal Town Hall
Raymond: 2 p.m., Raymond Public Safety Building
Scarborough: 1 p.m., Scarborough High School Cafeteria
Sebago: 6:30 p.m., Sebago Town Hall
South Portland: 1 p.m., South Portland High School Beal Gym
Standish: 2 p.m., Standish Town Hall
Westbrook: 3 p.m., Westbrook High School
Windham: 2 p.m., Friends Church
Yarmouth: 3 p.m., Log Cabin on Main Street
YORK COUNTY
Acton: 4 p.m., Acton Town House
Alfred: 1 p.m., Alfred Elementary School
Arundel: 1:30 p.m., Arundel Fire Station Meeting Room Berwick: 3 p.m., Berwick Town Hall
Biddeford: 12:30 p.m., Ross Center
Buxton, Hollis: 1 p.m., Buxton Town Hall
Cornish: 12:30 p.m., Cornish Town Hall
Newfield: 1 p.m., Newfield Town Hall
Dayton, Saco: 1 p.m., Fairfield School, Saco
Eliot: 2 p.m., Eliot Elementary School
Hollis, Buxton: 1 p.m., Buxton Town Hall
Kennebunk, Kennebunkport: 1 p.m., Kennebunk High School Gym
Kittery: 5 p.m., Traip Academy Gym
Lebanon: 6 p.m., Lebanon Fire Station
Limerick: 3 p.m., Limerick Municipal Building
Limington: 5:30 p.m., Limington Municipal Building
Lyman: 1 p.m., Lyman Town Hall
North Berwick: 2 p.m., North Berwick Town Hall
Ogunquit: 3 p.m., Dunaway Center
Old Orchard Beach: 1:30 p.m., Loranger Middle School Cafeteria
Parsonsfield: 1:30 p.m., Parsonsfield Town Hall
Sanford: 1 p.m., Sanford Town Hall Annex
Shapleigh: 1 p.m., Shapleigh Town Hall
South Berwick: 2:30 p.m., South Berwick Town Hall Auditorium
Waterboro: 1 p.m., Waterboro Town Hall
Wells: 1 p.m., Wells Activity Center
York: 1 p.m., York High School
DEMOCRATIC CAUCUSES
WHEN: Sunday
RULES: Any local party member may vote, as well as independents who join the party on the day of the caucus and nonvoters who register and join the party on the day of the caucus. Seventeen-year-olds who will be 18 by Election Day, Nov. 4, also may participate.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Town-by-town listing, information about absentee voting, go to www.mainedems.org, or call 622-6233.
GREEN INDEPENDENT CAUCUSES
MAINE'S THIRD legally recognized political party will hold caucuses in 20 to 30 communities around the state on Sunday, with a few more local caucuses to follow in the weeks ahead, according to Jane Meisenbach, the chairwoman of the party.
FOUR CANDIDATES are vying for the party's presidential nomination. Meisenbach said the winner of the Maine caucuses will pocket all of the state party's delegates to the national convention in Chicago in July.
MORE INFORMATION about the Green Independent caucuses and the party's presidential candidates is available at www.mainegreens.org.
BILL CLINTON IN MAINE
FORMER PRESIDENT Bill Clinton will campaign for his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, in Portland at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Portland Exposition Building, 239 Park Ave.
THE EVENT Is free and open to the public. Those interested in attending should go to www.hillaryclinton.com/portland.
HILLARY CLINTON IN MAINE
NEW YORK SEN. Hillary Clinton will attend a “Solutions for America” Town Hall at the University of Maine in Orono on Saturday.
THE EVENT is free and open to the public. Doors to the facility at 5797 Recreation Center open at 9 a.m. Those interested in attending should go to www.hillaryclinton.com/portland.
BARACK OBAMA IN MAINE
ILLINOIS SEN. Barack Obama will make a public appearance at the Bangor Auditorium on Saturday, a day before the state’s Democratic caucuses.
THE EVENT is free and open to the public. Doors to the facility on Dutton Street will open at 2:30 p.m.
Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama will make campaign visits to Maine Saturday as they prepare to face off in Sunday’s Democratic caucuses across the state.
The jockeying for delegates will begin in earnest tonight when former President Bill Clinton hosts a rally at the Portland Exposition Building at 7:30 p.m. All three events are open to the public.
Obama and Hillary Clinton could cross paths during their visits. She will attend a “Solutions for America” Town Hall at the University of Maine in Orono at 9 a.m. He will visit Bangor at 2:30 p.m. for a rally at the Bangor Auditorium.
The public appearances underscore the fact that both camps are scrambling for delegates in the hotly contested race, even in small states.
“I guess Maine is suddenly getting on the radar screen,” said political scientist Amy Fried of the University of Maine. “Every delegate counts at this point.”
The visits come as Democrats such as Sarah Downs of Kennebunk and Genie Beaulieu of Freeport gear up for Sunday’s caucuses.
The fact that neither candidate has locked up the nomination has so excited Maine Democrats that party officials say the attendance record from the 2004 caucuses might be shattered this weekend.
To Downs, Obama could prove to be “a great visionary” if he captures the White House in November. Beaulieu, who recently abandoned the Republican Party, says that Clinton “has probably the best grasp of what’s going on” economically and politically and that she will “fight for the causes she believes in” if she wins the election.
Neither candidate has campaigned in Maine so far this year, so the visits should spark an already high-energy race and shine a national spotlight on Maine’s role in the process.
At least 17,000 Democrats are expected to turn out when party members from 420 cities and towns assemble in 372 locations to take sides in the presidential contest and elect delegates to the Democratic state convention in May.
That convention will pull together Maine’s delegation to the Democrats’ national convention in Denver Aug. 25-28. No other state is holding caucuses or primaries Sunday, giving Maine an important designation.
Louisiana, Nebraska and Washington will hold caucuses or primaries on Saturday, and voters head to the polls in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia on Tuesday, so there is plenty of competition for the limelight.
“The aspect we’re focusing on is how important Maine will be in the process,” said Arden Manning, the party’s executive director. He said more than 5,500 Maine Democrats have requested absentee ballots and an estimated 4,000 have been cast, up from about 2,000 in 2004.
Obama won 13 states Tuesday and Clinton took eight. At last count, Clinton had 1,045 delegates and Obama had 960, with 2,025 needed to capture the nomination.
“If one candidate had dominated Super Tuesday, then it probably would have reduced interest and involvement” in the Maine caucuses, said Fried, the UMaine political scientist.
“With the delegate chase being so close, the campaigns are going to pay attention” to what happens in Maine on Sunday, said political scientist Ron Schmidt of the University of Southern Maine.
The state convention delegates elected at the caucuses will be pledged to support specific presidential candidates, and they will vote accordingly when they elect the national delegation.
The state convention will choose 24 national delegates, who will be joined by 10 so-called super-delegates – party officials and prominent Democrats who get their slots primarily because of their current or former jobs.
Caucus-goers interviewed Wednesday said they will back the eventual Democratic nominee, but they were passionate in their support for either Obama or Clinton.
Obama supporters focused on what they described...
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