AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) – Newly elected officials were sworn in to three of Maine’s most prominent state posts and a fourth began his third term Friday when Gov. John Baldacci administered the oath of office in a State House ceremony.

David Lemoine took over as state treasurer, Matthew Dunlap began a term as secretary of state and Neria Douglass became the new state auditor. All three are former Democratic legislators who were elected by lawmakers last month to their new posts.

Attorney General Steven Rowe, of Portland, began his third two-year term as the state’s chief legal counsel.

All four of the offices are subject to term limits of eight consecutive years. The auditor’s term is four years, and the others serve two-year terms.

Lemoine, a University of Maine School of Law graduate who lives in Old Orchard Beach, heads the agency that manages the state’s revenue deposits and trusts, invests the state’s cash pool and issues bonds for capital projects. He served two of his three House terms on the Taxation Committee. He previously served as an aide for former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell, D-Maine. In his new post, he succeeds Dale McCormick, who has been nominated by Baldacci to head the Maine State Housing Authority.

Dunlap, of Old Town, heads the agency that oversees motor vehicle licensing and registration, elections and corporations. Even before he was sworn in, Dunlap was nominated for a federal committee that will develop recommendations for new standards for drivers licenses and personal identification cards.

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, who announced Friday she is recommending Dunlap’s appointment to Transportation Secretary Norman Maneta, said the new standards should make it harder to forge licenses and obtain fraudulent documents.

They are being developed as part of the new intelligence reform and anti-terrorism law President Bush signed last month.

Collins, R-Maine, said her state is “ideally situated” to represent the interests of less-populated and other border states, with whom the state shares an interest in securing the nation’s borders. Dunlap succeeds Dan Gwadosky as head of the 450-employee Department of Secretary of State.

Douglass, a lawyer and former state senator from Auburn, has applied to become a certified internal auditor and stresses her legislative record for bolstering fiscal oversight laws.

A law she sponsored directed the Audit Department to establish a fraud hot line to increase accountability for public funds.

Douglass, who succeeds Gail Chase in her new post, received her law degree from Vanderbilt University School of Law.

AP-ES-01-07-05 1608EST