A national group called Women's Voices Women Vote is targeting 9,324 unmarried women in Maine as part of a nationwide voter registration drive.

The group says it has contacted Maine election officials to prepare them that they will be receiving more voter registrations as a result of the drive.

According to stats from the group, 67,994 unmarried women in Maine were eligible to vote in 2006, but failed to do so.

New Obama office in Portland

House Speaker Glenn Cummings, D-Portland, Gov. John Baldacci and State Auditor Neria Douglass will open a new campaign office for presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama on Saturday.

The "Campaign for Change" office will open at 11 a.m. Saturday at 1037 Forest Ave. in Portland.

Democratic strategist to address Lobsterbake

Tad Devine, a political strategist who heads the Washington D.C. based consulting firm Devine Mulvey LLC, will address the Maine Democratic Party's 2008 Muskie Lobsterbake on Saturday in Scarborough.

Democrats are charging $100 a head for the lobsterbake, an annual affair honoring former U.S. Sen. Edmund Muskie.

A new office that will serve as the Lincoln County Republican Headquarters will open on Saturday in Waldoboro.

Senate candidate David Trahan is hosting the event, which will feature music and a BBQ lunch. Trahan will be in a competitive race this fall against Rep. Peter Rines, D-Wiscasset. Both men want to take the seat currently held by Sen. Dana Dow, R-Waldoboro.

Other Republican candidates are expected to attend, including Charlie Summers, who's running for the 1st Congressional District, and Sen. Susan Collins, who's trying to defend her seat.

Summers faces Democrat Chellie Pingree and Collins faces U.S. Rep. Tom Allen, D-Maine.

The GOP event is open to the public beginning at 2 p.m. The office is across from the Irving Station on Route 1 in Waldoboro.

A $100 per person fundraiser set for August in Gardiner to support the reelection campaign of Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, features a list of influential central Mainers.

An invitation to the event lists hosts Peter Prescott and Steven Prescott, and local businessmen including: Paul Blouin, Mark Johnston, Richard O'Connor, Charles Shuman, Peter Vigue and Harry Wolfington.

Federal campaign finance rules say individual donors may give up to $2,300 between now and the November election.

Collins will face U.S. Rep. Tom Allen, D-Maine, on the ballot. The Maine Supreme Judicial Court will decide today whether independent candidate Herbert Hoffman of Ogunquit will also have his name on the ballot.

The Maine Democratic Party wants students to apply for fall Campus Organizer Internships to help meet a goal of having someone on every college and high school campus in the state.

The idea is to get students excited about the November election -- and get them registered to vote.

The interns will also lead volunteer recruitment efforts, work on campaign strategy and help with get out the vote efforts, according to the party.

Members of the Maine Green Independent Party joined Greens from around the country recently to back former Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney as their presidential nominee.

State Party Chairwoman Lynne Williams said in a statement that Maine Greens are getting organized to work on the campaign. Go to mainers4mckinney.org for more information.

"We are so pleased that the national delegates, including our group from Maine, has seen fit to nominate such an accomplished, vibrant woman, with a history of not just supporting Green values, but actively working to bring those values into all that she does in the political realm, as well as her entire life," Williams said.

U.S. Rep. Tom Allen, D-Maine, today proposed a series of four town hall meetings in August with his opponent Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.

Allen says he wants the meetings to focus on the economy, energy prices, health care and Iraq, according to a statement from his campaign.

The presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain on Sunday released the list of Mainers who will work on his campaign.

"John McCain's record of putting his country ahead of partisan politics makes him a perfect fit for Maine's discerning voters," said former Gov. John R. McKernan, Jr., who serves as Honorary State Chair and is also a former First District Congressman.

Here's the complete list:

Toby McGrath, who worked as chief of staff for House Speaker Glenn Cummings, D-Portland, has been named the Obama for America State Director, according to the Maine Democratic Party.

McGrath, of Brunswick, is credited with helping the Democrats pick up seats in the Maine House in 2006 and has worked on various campaigns in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

The Obama effort in Maine will also include Jessica Santillo, who is coming over from the Hillary Clinton campaign, where she headed up communications in Iowa, Colorado, Texas and West Virginia.

The party also announced that Ronnie Cho -- who's worked in Iowa, Arizona, Texas and Indiana -- will lead the Maine Campaign for Change as field director. The campaign is designed to get Democrats elected "up and down the ticket," according to the party.

House Minority Leader Josh Tardy, R-Newport, put out a statement late Wednesday saying the "Dirigo bureaucracy" will fight to keep new taxes on beer, wine and soda in place as a funding source for Dirigo Health.

He said efforts to repeal the taxes -- which will most likely include a November referendum question -- may well succeed. On Tuesday, a group called Fed Up with Taxes turned in more than enough signatures to get a question on the November ballot.

"The idea of increasing taxes when state residents are deeply worried about heating oil costs, gas costs, food costs and a shaky economy strikes many folks as senseless," Tardy said. "We already have the second-highest tax burden in the nation."

He continued:

"If the taxes are repealed, Dirigo would survive by continuing its current funding system," he said. "But the Dirigo bureaucracy wants these new taxes, so I think we need to be prepared for a bruising battle over this issue right up to Election Day. I expect to see a lot of disinformation and deceptive advertising."

The Kennebec County Democratic Committee will soon open a campaign office in Hallowell and expect to open one in Waterville later this summer.

County committee chairwoman Rita Moran said the office at 210 Water St. will be open Saturday during Old Hallowell Day.

"It was the success of our continued fundraising, and the need for more room to house our many volunteers, that has made this office a reality," she said in a statement.

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and U.S. Rep. Tom Allen, D-Maine, released their second quarter fundraising totals today, showing both have raised about $1 million in the last three months.

Allen is challenging Collins for her Senate seat.

That brings Collins' cash on hand to more than $5.1 million and Allen's to $3.1 million, according to information provided by both campaigns.

"This strong fundraising quarter not only shows that those of us who live in Maine appreciate Senator Collins' continued hard work and dedication to our state, but it also helps to ensure that her campaign will have the resources that it will need to communicate Senator Collins' long record of bipartisan accomplishments in the U.S. Senate," said Kevin Kelley, spokesman for the Collins campaign.

Allen's spokeswoman, Carol Andrews, had this to say: "Contributors recognize Tom Allen's record of accomplishments and sound judgment in opposing the disastrous policies of the Bush Administration. They are hungry for change for Maine and America and know that with Tom Allen, they will get it."

A poll released this week shows 52.8 percent of the respondents believe Gov. John Baldacci is doing an excellent/good job.

If you break it down a little further, you'll see 1.8 percent rated him "excellent" and 51 percent said "good."

On the negative side of the ledger, 45 percent rated him "poor" or "very poor." Only 2.3 percent didn't have an opinion.

The Pan Atlantic SMS Group Omnibus Poll, which calls itself "the benchmark of Maine public opinion," gathered the opinions of 400 Maine adults using a computer aided telephone interviewing system.

The computer asked those who participated in the poll this question:

"John Baldacci has been in office as Maine's Governor for almost six years. How would you rate the job Governor Baldacci has done thus far?"

The options, which were rotated, were: excellent, good, poor, very poor, don't know.

Pan Atlantic has been asking similar questions since August 2005. Here's how it's played out over time:

•August 2005: excellent/good 49.6 percent; very poor/poor 49.1 percent

•July 2006: excellent/good 62.3 percent; very poor/poor 35.9 percent

•May 2007: excellent/good 56.1 percent; very poor/poor 41 percent

•Sept. 2007: excellent/good 63.6 percent; very poor/poor 33.6 percent

•June 2008: excellent/good 52.8 percent; very poor/poor 45.1 percent

Democrats who live in House District 78, all of Sidney and part of Oakland, are invited to attend a meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 16 to choose their candidate for the House seat.

The nominating caucus will be held at Williams School, 55 Pleasant St., in Oakland.

The seat is open because Rep. Jill Conover, D-Oakland, decided not to seek reelection and the Democrat who filed to run, Jeremy Caron of Sidney, moved out of state.

Former Rep. Robert Nutting, R-Oakland, is running as the Republican candidate.

A judge will hear arguments Thursday in the court challenge filed by Democrats alleging Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap should not have certified petitions submitted by Herbert Hoffman.

Hoffman, of Ogunquit, wants to have his name on the November ballot in race for the U.S. Senate. An unenrolled candidate, he needed to gather 4,000 signatures to qualify.

If the court agrees with Dunlap, Hoffman will have his name alongside Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican, and U.S. Rep. Tom Allen, a Democrat.

Judge Donald Marden will hear the case at 2 p.m. in Kennebec County Superior Court in Augusta. A decision is expected by the end of the day on Monday.

Small business owners and prominent state Republicans will lend their support today to presidential candidate Sen. John McCain’s small business economic plan.

House Minority Leader Josh Tardy, R-Newport, Rep. Meredith Strang Burgess, R-Cumberland, and business owner Doug Newman of Hallowell will all be in Portland at DiMIllo’s Floating Restaurant at 2 p.m. to talk about the plan.

Three of the four people who filed to run for Augusta’s two House seats have dropped out, leaving both parties to choose new candidates.

And there’s a vacancy in a Sidney/Oakland district as well.

At the March filing deadline, it appeared the match-ups would be:

• House 56: incumbent Rep. Kim Silsby, a Democrat, against Aubrey Knorr, a Republican. Both have since dropped out.