Former Gov. Paul LePage is seeking a third, nonconsecutive term in the Blaine House. If elected this month, LePage will become the longest-serving chief executive in Maine history.
But he wouldn’t be our first governor elected to a third term in office. Maine has already seen some chief executives elected three, four and even five times.
Maine gubernatorial history is storm-tossed and complicated, with multiple death-induced successions, stopgap short-timers and dramatic political comebacks.
Nine of Maine’s 75 governors retired before their terms expired — including each of the first three. Three served only a day. Four served multiple, nonconsecutive terms. Four Maine governors died in office, two were brothers and one pair were father and son.
In one eventful year, Maine swore in four different governors.
Currently, Joseph Brennan holds the title for longest-serving Maine governor.
Brennan, a Portland democrat, took office Jan. 3, 1979. He won a second term and left office Jan. 7, 1987 after 2,926 days on the job. That’s equal to eight years and four days.
Coming in a close second is former two-term independent Maine Gov. Angus King who clocked 2,925 days, or eight years and three days in office.
John Mckernan, who served from 1987 until 1995, is third at 2,920 days in office.
LePage, and his predecessor, Gov. John Baldacci, are both tied for fourth, one day behind Mckernan, at 2,919 days at the top of Maine’s executive branch.
If elected next week, LePage would need to serve eight days in office to beat Brennan for the top spot.
Portland lawyer Albion Parris holds the record for most terms served as Maine governor at five.
Parris served from Jan. 5 1822 until Jan. 3, 1827. That’s only a total of four years, 11 months and 29 days in office because gubernatorial terms were only a year long back then.
(Parris attempted a comeback in 1854 but lost to Anson Morrill, whose brother, Lot Morrill, was later elected governor in 1857, 1858 and 1859.)
Maine was just two years old when Parris assumed office, but he was the state’s fifth governor. That’s because the first three resigned and the fourth only served an emergency four days.
Maine’s first governor, William King, left office to negotiate a federal treaty with Spain at President James Monroe’s request. Senate President William Williams then stepped in for a few months but also resigned to take a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Speaker of the House Benjamin Ames then assumed the governor’s seat for nearly a month before leaving the new Senate president, Daniel Rose, to serve the final four days.
Given the turnover in Maine’s first gubernatorial term, which saw four men serve, perhaps it’s no wonder why voters opted for stability, electing Parris five times in a row.
The calm didn’t last long, however.
After Parris vacated the office, Enoch Lincoln took his place, winning three terms. However Lincoln died in 1829 during his third term. His tomb is in Capital Park, directly across the street from the State House.
However, it’s empty and nobody knows where his remains are today.
Senate President Nathan Cutler served the remainder of Lincoln’s term before handing the office keys over to Speaker of the House Joshua Hall who served one month before a new, elected governor was sworn in.
Edward Kent was the first Maine governor to serve nonconsecutive terms from 1838 to 1839 and 1841 to 1842.
Between those two stints, John Fairfield was governor in 1839 and 1840 but resigned one day short of his expiration date, leaving Senate President Richard Vose to serve as the 14th governor during the one-day gap.
Maine lost another governor to resignation when Hannibal Hamlin left office in 1857, becoming Abraham Lincoln’s first vice president.
A period of relative stability followed, with governors serving full, and often multiple terms between 1857 and 1886.
During that time, Civil War hero Joshua Chamberlain served four one-year terms, while both Sidney Perham and Seldon Connor served three apiece.
In 1882, governors began serving two-year terms, though 40th Gov. Joseph Bodwell served a shorter term, dying in office in 1887.
Gov. Frederic Parkhurst was ill when sworn into office on January 5, 1921 and died of pneumonia just three weeks later. Gov. Percival Baxter, the president of the Senate, served the rest of Parkhurst’s term and another one of his own.
Gov. Lewis Barrows was the first Maine chief executive to be term-limited, in 1941, after two consecutive two-year terms in office.
Gov. Frederick Payne resigned in 1952 during his final months in office to take a seat in the U.S. Senate. Maine Senate President Burton Cross took on the office for a few weeks but resigned one day before the new governor — him — was set to be sworn in.
That set the stage for Nathaniel Haskell, the new President of the Senate, to take the temporary role for 25 hours, making Haskell the shortest serving Maine governor to date.
A few years later, in 1959, Maine had four separate governors.
The situation started when Gov. Edmund Muskie resigned on Jan. 1 to take a U.S. Senate seat. Then, Maine Senate President Robert Haskell took over for a few days, until Jan. 7, when Clinton Clauson took his oath.
However, Clausen died on Dec. 30. At that point, John Reed, president of the Senate and Maine’s fourth governor of 1959, took over.
In 1966, Gov. Ken Curtis won Maine’s first four-year term in office and was then reelected, as well.
Since Curtis, every elected governor — except James Longley — has served two stable terms.
Gov. Janet Mills made history four years ago, becoming the first woman elected to the governor’s office in Maine.
Next week, LePage has the potential to make history as well as Maine’s longest-serving governor.
