Associate Professor of Politics John Baughman welcomes the audience to the Maine gubernatorial debate held at Bates on Oct. 27, 2010. Photograph by Rene Minnis.

With independent Angus King continuing to lead in fundraising for the U.S. Senate race in Maine, the Portland Press Herald turns to Associate Professor of Politics John Baughman for insight.

King raised $1.1 million in the past three months, more than double the combined totals of his challengers from the Republican (Charlie Summers) and Democratic (Cynthia Dill) parties.

One thing is clear, Baughman says: A much-anticipated campaign spending war for the seat of retiring Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe never materialized.

That’s because the major parties didn’t see the race as winnable after King, a former independent Maine governor, immediately jumped out to a big lead in the polls.

“If [the parties] don’t think the race is going to be close, they are probably going to put the money where they can make the most difference,” Baughman tells reporter John Richardson.

• View story from the Portland Press Herald, Oct. 16, 2012.

This winter, in collaboration with the Androscoggin Valley Regional Program for the Gifted and Talented, Bates College hosts three presentations related to the 2010 election for Maine governor.

Former Maine Gov. Angus King opens the series with a discussion of his first Blaine House race at noon Tuesday, Dec. 8, in Chase Hall Lounge, 56 Campus Ave. King will also discuss his legacy as governor, including the Maine public school laptop program that provides every public middle-school student with an Apple laptop.

King ran as an independent for governor in 1994 and was re-elected in 1998. Building his platform on bipartisanship, King won re-election by a substantial margin. He currently serves as the Segal Lecturer in American Politics at Bates.

Two candidates for the 2010 Blaine House race continue the series: American Skiing Company founder Les Otten on Feb 10 and former Maine legislator and state Attorney General G. Steven Rowe on March 3.

Sponsored by the college’s Harward Center for Community Partnerships, all of the series events are open to the public at no cost. For more information, please call 207-786-6400.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Otten speaks at 9 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 10, in the Edmund S. Muskie Archives at Bates, 70 Campus Ave. After leaving American Skiing Company, Otten worked as vice chairman and minority partner for the Boston Red Sox baseball franchise. In June 2009, he announced the formation of an exploratory committee to consider a bid for governor.

Democratic candidate Rowe speaks at 9 a.m. Wednesday, March 3, in Chase Hall Lounge, 56 Campus Ave. As attorney general, Rowe tackled such major issues as lowering prescription drug costs, domestic violence, sexual assault, substance abuse and elder financial exploitation. He helped reform mortgage lending practices by taking on predatory lenders and by advocating for tougher consumer protection laws.

His leadership positions in the Legislature included chairing committees on economic development, research and development, and natural resources, and he was elected by his colleagues to serve as speaker of the House in his final term. He supported higher education by leading the passage of a $26 million capital improvement bond to improve Maine’s community colleges, promoted public health by leading the creation of the Fund for a Healthy Maine and led the passage of a $50 million Land for Maine’s Future bond issue.

The Androscoggin Valley Regional Program for the Gifted and Talented was developed in the 1980s in response to the needs of gifted and talented high school students who may benefit from differentiated programming. The program is a cooperative endeavor among school systems in the Androscoggin Valley Education Collaborative, comprising Lewiston, Auburn, SAD 52, school unions 29, 30 and 44, and Bates College.

Former Maine Gov. Angus King Jr. visits Bates College to address the theme “Protecting the Environment: Reflections on the Role of Leadership” at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 25, at the Edmund S. Muskie Archives, 70 Campus Ave.

Co-sponsored by the Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library and the Natural Resources Council of Maine, the annual Edmund S. Muskie Environmental Lecture is open to the public at no cost. For more information, please call 207-786-6272.

King’s speech will link the environmental leadership of the late U.S. Sen. Edmund S. Muskie, a member of Bates class of 1936 and the creator of such landmark legislation as the Clean Air and Clean Water acts, with the prospects for environmentalism under President Barack Obama.

King is a principal in Independence Wind LLC, which has proposed a wind power development in the Oxford County town of Roxbury. He is of counsel to the Portland law firm of Bernstein, Shur, teaches at Bowdoin College, and serves on the boards of, and advises, several Maine-based and international organizations, including the Public Broadcasting Service.

King served two four-year terms as Maine’s 71st chief executive, taking office in 1995 as the nation’s only independent governor. His administration revamped the state’s mental health and corrections systems, effected major improvements in the state’s service capability, and presided over the largest increase of lands in conservation in Maine history.

A particularly well-known King achievement was the creation of a nationally recognized program to provide laptop computers to every seventh- and eighth-grade student in the state. King was re-elected to the Blaine House by one of the largest margins of victory in Maine’s history.

Upon leaving office in 2003, King, his wife, Mary Herman, and their two children spent five and a half months driving around the U.S. in a 40-foot Dutch Star RV. Driving coast to coast and reaching the four corners of the Lower 48, the family covered some 15,000 miles.

King graduated from Dartmouth College in 1966 and earned a law degree at the University of Virginia Law School in 1969. He began his career as a staff attorney for Pine Tree Legal Assistance in Skowhegan. In 1972, he became chief counsel to the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Alcoholism and Narcotics in the Washington, D.C., office of Sen. William D. Hathaway.

In 1975, he returned to Maine to practice law with the firm of Smith, Loyd & King in Brunswick, and began his nearly two-decade stint as host of the television show “Maine Watch” on Maine public television.

In 1983 King became vice president and general counsel of Swift River-Hafslund Company, an alternative energy development company based in Portland and Boston. In 1989 he founded Northeast Energy Management, Inc., a Brunswick-based company specializing in the development of large-scale energy conservation projects at commercial and industrial facilities in Maine. He served five years as the company’s president.

The Maine memorial service for Muskie is scheduled for 1 p.m. in the Bates Chapel. The public is invited to attend.

Muskie, a 1936 Bates graduate, died March 26 at age 81 in a Washington hospital following a heart attack. A funeral Mass was held March 30 in Bethesda, Md., and he was buried at Arlington National Cemetery outside Washington.

The service will be conducted by the Most Rev. Joseph Gerry, Roman Catholic bishop of Maine. The eulogists will be Gov. Angus King, Bates President Donald W. Harward, former U.S. Rep. and U.S. District Judge Frank M. Coffin, businessman and longtime Muskie supporter Shepard Lee, former U.S. Sen. George J. Mitchell, Sen. William S. Cohen and Muskie’s son Stephen.

Also in attendance will be members of Muskie’s family, including his wife, Jane; and members of Muskie’s 1936 Bates class. Muskie had been planning to attend his 60-year reunion at Bates in June.

Following the service, the public is invited to take guided tours of the Edmund S. Muskie Archives on the Bates campus. The archives contains records of Muskie’s 32-year career in public life, from his days as a young Maine legislator to his service as secretary of state in the Carter administration and his campaigns for president and vice president.