POLAND – Max Levine won a gubernatorial race in an afternoon.

He filled his cabinet in minutes. And in six hours, his administration balanced the state budget.

“I felt like I could connect with almost everyone,” Levine said. So it only figures that he wants to take it further.

He wants to be president.

“I’ll take a shot,” said the 17-year-old governor, elected last month to lead Boys State, Maine’s annual gathering of politically minded teenage boys. Sponsored by the American Legion, it was held this year at Maine Maritime Academy in Castine.

About 350 boys attended. They elected Levine governor and chose him as one of two Maine senators to the gathering’s national counterpart: Boys Nation.

The 96 boy senators from 48 states will gather in Washington. They’ll introduce and debate legislation, tour the memorials and elect a president.

“After everything that people have done for me, I feel like I should run,” Levine said. Teachers and counselors helped to get him into the state gathering. Fellow delegates made him a leader.

And it felt good.

Since the June retreat in Castine, he has run into several of the teens who elected him. Their recognition – calling him “Guvna” – at Old Orchard Beach and at baseball games touched him, he said.

“I knew their faces and they knew me,” Levine said.

It’s a feeling he has grown accustomed to in his school, Poland Regional High School. Levine, who will be a senior in the fall, was elected class president his first three years.

There’s more, though.

Two years ago, he and a friend helped start a debate team at the school. It led them to regional matches at Harvard University.

And he has already visited Washington once this year, attending the National Youth Leadership Conference.

All this politics and debate has led the A student to begin looking at colleges that help people prepare for law school. He wants to be a lawyer.

It’s part passion about issues and part intellectual searching: seeing smart people with different ideas square off.

“You can always find someone who doesn’t believe what you believe,” said Levine, who describes himself as a moderate liberal.

While serving as governor, his group of boys raised the cost of marriage licenses, boosted the cigarette tax, increased job training and raised teacher salaries.

He suspects he’ll enter politics as an adult, though he is unsure what level he may shoot for – local, state or national.

“I wish I could be part of government to make it better,” he said.

For now, the tall, athletic teenager is happy making his arguments and debating the issues with other students. The week in Washington, scheduled to begin on July 23, will have plenty of that.

“It looks pretty busy,” he said, flipping through the pages of a loose-leafed binder.

Then he stopped, smiled at one of the events on his schedule and flashed two thumbs up.

“We also get to meet Girls Nation,” he said.