By David Farmer,Staff Writer

AUBURN – With cheers of “Chandler” and “Governor Woodcock” reverberating around the banquet hall of the Hilton Garden Inn in Auburn, state Sen. Chandler Woodcock took to the stage at 12:40 a.m. today with a solid lead in the race for the Republican gubernatorial nomination.

“It’s been a long, but reasonably enjoyable evening,” Woodcock told the adoring crowd of about 75 people who had ridden the night’s electoral roller coaster to the end. “I’m humbled by the show of support from around the state.”

“We’re optimistic,” Woodcock continued. “If these numbers hold, it appears to be a victory for the working people of this state.”

With votes from 81 percent of Maine’s 634 precincts counted, Woodcock had 40 percent of the votes, while state Sen. Peter Mills had 35 percent and David Emery trailed with 25 percent.

In a concession statement to his supporters in Portland, Emery promised to enthusiastically support the eventual nominee to face Democratic Gov. John Baldacci and complimented Mills and Woodcock “for the class with which both of these candidates have conducted their campaigns.”

A few minutes after midnight, Mills called the Woodcock campaign and said that he wanted 20 more minutes to evaluate returns coming in from around the state before he would consider conceding the race.

A short time later, Mills decided to wait until today before making a decision.

While complimenting Mills and Emery on the type of campaign they waged, Woodcock used his brief time on the stage to begin his argument on why he should replace the incumbent.

“This governor has overpromised and underdelivered,” Woodcock said. “It’s time for a change at the Blaine House.”

Baldacci easily won the Democratic Party’s nod to seek a second, four-year term this November after defeating Christopher Miller by a 3-1 margin.

Baldacci met with supporters at his family’s restaurant in Bangor to mark what he called “the end of the first leg of our journey.” He said the campaign has been “a great chance to talk about the issues that matter to Maine people.”

Unopposed in the Green Independent Party’s primary was Pat LaMarche, who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1998.

Republican voters had to choose their candidate from among two state senators – Mills and Woodcock – and former congressman Emery.

Woodcock, of Farmington, is completing his third term in the state Senate, where he served a term as assistant GOP leader. The University of Maine graduate, who has taught at Maine high schools and is remembered for coaching Mount Blue teams to state girls’ basketball championships, has stressed family values in his campaign.

Mills, a lawyer who lives in Cornville, has claimed throughout his campaign that he gives the Republicans their best chance to defeat Baldacci in November.

Coming from a family that’s long been prominent in Maine politics, the Harvard-educated Mills has served 12 years in the Legislature. Moderate on social issues, Mills is well-regarded in the State House for his depth of knowledge on complex tax and budget issues. Like his GOP rival Woodcock, Mills is a Vietnam War veteran.

Emery, of St. George, served two terms in the Legislature in the early 1970s before he was elected to Congress from Maine’s 1st District. In 1982 he lost a U.S. Senate race to Democrat George Mitchell, but later served in the Reagan administration as deputy director of the U.S. Arms and Disarmament Agency. He lost a race for the U.S. House in 1990.

Joining the party-backed gubernatorial candidates whose names are to appear on the Nov. 7 ballot are John Michael of Auburn, a 2002 nonparty candidate for governor, and Barbara Merrill of Appleton, a state representative who dropped her Democratic Party affiliation earlier this year and went independent.

Also qualifying to appear as independents on the November ballot are David John Jones of Falmouth and Phillip Morris NaPier of Windham. None of the four independents were on the ballot in Tuesday’s voting.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.