Now that you’ve got the plastic torn off your 2008 calendar, it’s time to fill it up with some important political events in the new year.

Here’s the short list, all leading up to the biggest day of all — Nov. 4:

Maine Republican caucuses: Feb. 1, 2, 3
Maine Democratic caucuses: Feb. 10
Maine Green Independent caucuses: Feb. 10
Maine Republican Party State Convention: May 2 & 3 in Augusta
Maine Democratic Party State Convention: May 30-June 1 in Augusta
Green Independent National Convention: July 10-13 in Chicago
Democratic National Convention: Aug. 25-28 in Denver
Republican National Convention: Sept. 1-4 in St. Paul

For Senate Minority Leader Carol Weston, R-Montville, a Christmas without a lot of presents stands out. It was 1970.

“It was the first Christmas my husband and I were married,” she said. “We had just moved from Aroostook County to Waldo County.

"We had no money. We decided we could spend $5 for each of us for Christmas. That’s what went under our tree, which had only lights. We were living in a little apartment in Brooks. It was just exciting to see how we spent that $5.”

Gov. John Baldacci said this week he hopes the new president — he’s pulling for Sen. Hillary Clinton — pays attention to domestic matters when he or she takes office.

“I think a lot of what we’re facing here in Maine and around the country comes from Washington,” he said in a year-end sit down interview with the Kennebec Journal. “The focus needs to be on domestic issues, on education, health care and getting our domestic economy going again.”

If you are one of the “few hundred” people on House Speaker Glenn Cummings’ holiday card list, look at it closely.

He painted the scene himself.

The card depicts a man and woman embracing at the end of a long farmhouse driveway, what Cummings described as “a welcome home scene at Christmas time.”

Two local Ron Paul supporters said this week that they are standing by their man — and they definitely want him to stay in the race as a Republican.

Paul, the Texas congressman running on a presidential platform of freedom, is in single digits in most polls heading into the start of the primary and caucus season next month.

But Nancy Lawrence of Augusta and Robert Wallace of Farmingdale say they don’t believe the polls or the main stream media when it comes to the presidential election.

As endorsement announcements go, this was a low-key affair.

At 9:30 a.m. Saturday, Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign sent out a press release announcing that Gov. John Baldacci would support her bid for president.

There were a couple of quotes from Baldacci, with some background about his Dirigo Health program.

Republican Dean Scontras of Eliot, who is running for the 1st Congressional District, challenged Democrats this week to outline their positions on immigration.

Scontras wants Gov. John Baldacci to rescind an executive order he signed in 2004 that allows immigrants to get access to social services.

“As I travel the campaign trail, illegal immigration is the issue at the forefront of most voters’ minds,” he wrote. “Mainers feel that the federal government has let them down on this issue by failing to secure our borders and pass comprehensive immigration reform during the last legislative session.”

Democrats will gather in Portland and Orono this weekend for an Organizing 101 session to get ready for the 2008 elections.

The closed meetings aren’t top secret, said Maine Democratic Party Executive Director Arden Manning, but they don’t want nosy media types there either.

“They aren’t super secret, but it’s not stuff we would want to publicize,” he said.

University of Maine at Farmington political science professor Jim Melcher said people may buy books based on Oprah’s recommendations, but they aren’t likely to rush right out and vote for a certain candidate.

Melcher said the talk show icon’s weekend appearances for Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama put fans in the stands, and that’s not a bad thing.

“It’s going to spur people to pay attention to him that might not otherwise do so,” he said.

Last year’s fight over taxes in Maine, which culminated in the defeat of the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, drew lots of big money from national groups, many of whom opposed the measure, according to a report from the National Institute on Money in State Politics.

The institute examined spending on all ballot measures across the country in 2006 and found only 23 percent of the $648 million raised on either side of any of the issues came from individuals.

What did that mean in Maine?

Former Gardiner Mayor Brian Rines is planning to take another run at the Senate seat now occupied by Sen. Earle McCormick, R-West Gardiner.

Rines lost to McCormick by 700 or so votes in 2006, in one of the most hotly contested Senate races in the state. McCormick moved over from the House to claim the seat left open when Sen. Scott Cowger, D-Hallowell, decided not to run again.

Looking ahead to next year, it’s likely to be a race to watch as Republicans try to turn the tide on the Democrats’ one-seat majority.

Senate President Beth Edmonds, D-Freeport, said she’s tired of the naysayers.

Throughout the fall, she’s met with different Rotary groups and others to talk about what’s good about Maine, and she brings her speech to the Augusta Rotary early Thursday morning.

“I’ve been trying to change the conversation statewide,” she said. “What gets focused on are all the bad things that are going on. In terms of the economy, that’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

John Frary of Farmington, a Republican who’s running in the 2nd Congressional District, has issued a statement in support of the Plum Creek Timber Co.’s plan to build resorts and homes near Moosehead Lake.

The candidate, the only announced Republican in the running, is jumping into the debate at a hot time, as the Land Use Regulation Commission holds a series of public hearings across the state.