The race for governor has other candidates besides the two selected by the major parties.

The Sun Journal should be ashamed of itself. On Thursday, an editorial listed every candidate for governor but me. The headline was particularly telling: “Different men. Different messages. One governor.”

Not only is the headline unfair to the two women in the race, it perpetuates the myth that only a major party candidate can win the Blaine House.

Lewiston-Auburn is the last area in Maine where I would have expected such an oversight.

Thirty-two years ago, James B. Longley Sr., a Lewiston businessman, traversed the state in his bid to become Maine’s first independent governor. He said Maine needed something more than two warring political parties that did much to advance their own power but little to enrich and improve the day-to-day lives of Maine people.

Even on election night, Maine political pundits and newspaper editors were still chuckling over Longley’s longshot bid to make history. With solid help from the Twin Cities, Longley made American history: He won an astounding 66 percent of the vote in Lewiston and 73 percent in Auburn, defeating in the process Democratic candidate George Mitchell.

Even if 1974 seems like ancient history, how could the Sun Journal editorial writers forget another sensational political performance by an independent in 1994, when Angus King defeated three other candidates, in large part by winning over thousands of Democratic voters in Lewiston and Auburn?

Like Longley 20 years earlier, King won the hearts of L-A voters: King took 48 percent of the Auburn vote and 43 percent in Lewiston.

I will be spending a lot of time here throughout the summer and fall and am confident that once again voters here will elect a frugal, independent governor.

Mainers want new leadership, and the low turnout and results of Tuesday’s election demonstrated it. Excitement was noticeably lacking in the Republican primary. A full one-quarter of Democratic voters rejected Gov. John Baldacci.

Also on Tuesday, the Republican Party nominated its most conservative candidate, a good man but one who will only bring more division and strife to the State House, not less.

This state needs a governor who will take the best of both parties, and who puts getting the job done ahead of political nonsense. We need a governor who will prune state government, instead of the current one who just pours on the fertilizer or one who would just take a chain saw to it. We need a chief executive who understands that many of the policies that Baldacci and legislative Democrats have put into place in this state are not helping us get out from under our burden of taxation or effectively reducing the cost of health insurance for middle-income Mainers. But we cannot afford to elect a governor who would turn back the clock and postpone cleaning up the Androscoggin River for another 10 years. And we don’t need a renewed battle over a woman’s right to choose. In short, we need less partisan rhetoric and a lot more action on the key challenges facing this state.

The voters of Lewiston and Auburn deserve a chance to learn about my independent candidacy, and I look forward to more balanced coverage from this paper as the campaign season progresses.

Barbara Merrill is state representative for District 44. She lives in Appleton.