AUGUSTA (AP) – Legislators are being issued new license plates that use one design for the entire Legislature rather than separate styles for the Senate and House of Representatives.

The old plate designs, which had been around for 25 years or more, were blue for members of the House and red for members of the Senate. The new plate features the white and green State House dome on the left and the House or Senate district of the lawmaker to the right of that image.

The district number is bracketed between the words “Maine” across the top of the plate and “Legislature” across the bottom. The district number is preceded by the letter “S” for Senate or “H” for House members.

Assistant Senate Majority Leader Kenneth Gagnon, D-Waterville, who was largely responsible for the redesign, says it is supposed to create “a unified, distinctive image” for the Legislature.

The plate doesn’t draw distinctions between the Senate and the House as the old plate did, and the State House dome serves as a symbol of sorts for the Legislature itself, he said.

The old design, with some recent modifications, dated from the late 1970s for the Senate and 1979 or 1980 for the House, according to Doug Dunbar in the Secretary of State’s Office, which oversees the Bureau of Motor Vehicles.

“The blue plates (for the House) made you look like state troopers and the red plates (for the Senate) made you look like volunteer firefighters,” Gagnon said.

He said he remembers coming up behind motorists back when he was in the House and watching them slam on their brakes when they saw his blue license plate in their rear-view mirrors.

It’s not entirely clear why the state issues special license plates to legislators, perhaps because nobody at the State House was around when the Legislature passed a law authorizing them way back in 1951. Even the governor doesn’t get a special plate in Maine.

Gagnon said the special plates provide “public visibility” for lawmakers, letting constituents know that their legislators are out making the rounds. They also allow lawmakers to use designated parking at the State House. It’s also been suggested over the years that police officers, seeing the easily recognized plates, look the other way when lawmakers break the speed limit.

Gagnon doesn’t buy that theory and says he’s been stopped twice for speeding while driving a car with legislative plates, once by a state trooper and once by a Waterville police officer.

So how are they going over?

Gagnon thinks the new plates are a big improvement over the old ones, but Sen. Richard Nass disagrees.

The Acton Republican said the new plate isn’t very distinctive. And to make matters worse, the coloring resembles a New Hampshire plate, he said, and “for those of us who are on the (state) border, that’s a little irritating.”

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Information from: Portland Press Herald, http://www.portland.com/