BY ANN S. KIM

MaineToday Media, Inc.

Gov. John Baldacci on Wednesday withdrew his nomination of an organic blueberry grower to the Board of Pesticides Control after intense lobbying against her by groups that represent conventional farmers.

The move came at the request of Deborah Aldridge, whose nomination was rejected by the Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry the day before. Aldridge would have needed a two-thirds vote of the full Senate to win confirmation.

Aldridge is believed to be the first nominee to the board who failed to win committee endorsement since the board's current structure was established in 1980. She would have filled an empty seat that had been held by another organic farmer.

It is one of two seats on the seven-member board that must be filled by members with a demonstrated interest in environmental protection.

Aldridge said she was bewildered by her committee hearing, which ended with a 7-to-3 vote against her. The committee endorsed the nomination of three others. They won unanimous confirmation by the Senate on Wednesday.

"They really kept hammering on me about how I felt about pesticides and their use. I said, clearly, on many occasions, there is a need for it," Aldridge said by telephone from her farm in Jonesboro.

Sen. John Nutting, who co-chairs the agriculture committee, said there was intense lobbying against Aldridge from various groups, although they did not, for the most part, testify at the hearing.

"Her views toward conventional agriculture were concerning to just about all of the groups, be it the Farm Bureau, the Maine Dairymen's Association, the Maine Blueberry Commission, the Maine Potato Board," said Nutting, a Leeds Democrat who voted against Aldridge.

Some of the concern stemmed from a letter Aldridge sent to the board that expressed support for a 500-foot buffer for aerial spraying. That letter, Nutting said, was widely circulated in the blueberry community. The board is working on recommendations for aerial spraying that will be presented to lawmakers.

Aldridge may also have been hurt by comments she made about her blueberry fields. Nutting interpreted them to mean that she felt her fields were unhealthy when they were conventionally farmed, but now healthy under organic practices. Aldridge, however, said there were many reasons behind the fields' current health, including the use of natural pollinators and her practice of not burning fields.

Sen. Margaret Rotundo, D-Lewiston, said Aldridge would have brought a valuable perspective to the board, which relies on a diversity of perspectives to work through thorny issues. Rotundo voted for Aldridge.

Rotundo said the questioning at the hearing suggested that farmers on the committee felt Aldridge wasn't sympathetic to conventional agriculture. But Rotundo said there was no one publicly presented compelling evidence that Aldridge was unfit to serve.

"The person who came before us certainly didn't seem like an extremist," Rotundo said.

Heather Spalding, associate director of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, said her impression is that committee members do not want organic farming represented on the board.

"We are concerned about this because we are part of Maine's agricultural community," she said.

David Farmer, the governor's spokesman, said Baldacci was deeply disappointed.

"Certainly, it is a disturbing message -- the experience this woman has as a conventional farmer and an organic farmer - that she isn't suitable for a seat at the table," Farmer said. "That's outrageous."

The seat on the pesticides control board has been unfilled since September 2007.