AUGUSTA – New inner office assignments are likely and change in the Cabinet is under consideration as Gov. John Baldacci looks toward the January beginning of a second four-year term.

The governor himself has been tight-lipped, declining a request for an interview on personnel changes. Rumor and gossip, however, have been widespread in recent staff conversations as advisers and supplicants stream in and out of the chief executive’s office off the Hall of Flags at the State House.

“What I’m telling everyone who talks to me is … it would be premature to speculate,” Baldacci staff chief Jane Lincoln said in advance of the Thanksgiving holiday. “It would be my hope that by the end of December or inauguration that we have a sense of where we’re moving.”

Baldacci will be sworn in again in early January. And while that’s still weeks away, the pace of the transition process to date already has prompted some frustration within and outside the administration, according to people concerned about various job prospects who said they would not speak for attribution.

Lincoln suggested the administration’s aim is to be deliberative while acting with sufficient dispatch.

“The governor has asked me to undertake a review of all the appointed positions in state government, agency by agency,” she said.

Saying the directive was designed to cover those “helping to deliver the governor’s message,” Lincoln put the number of positions being given special scrutiny at perhaps 170.

Evaluations could well suggest ways to reorganize, she added.

“We’re reviewing our own office … how we should be organized to be as effective as we possibly can be,” Lincoln said.

One all-but-sure component of administration operations to be revamped is legislative liaison – the system for advancing the Baldacci agenda in the Senate and House of Representatives while responding to the legislative interests of others.

Lincoln calls it “enhancing our legislative outreach.”

In one transfer, State Budget Officer Ryan Low is slated to join the governor’s office staff. There also would be a new presence as legal counsel if incumbent Tom Federle departs.

A persistent whisper has the outgoing speaker of the state House of Representatives, Democrat John Richardson of Brunswick, joining Baldacci’s government. Another frequent murmur, often linked to the Richardson rumor, would have Commissioner Jack Cashman of the Department of Economic and Community Development on the move.

Public Safety Commissioner Michael Cantara is viewed as a possible judicial nominee. And a vacancy remains on the Public Utilities Commission.

Lincoln, taking a cue from the governor, declined to discuss specifics.

Four years ago, preparing to take office as Maine’s first Democratic chief executive in 16 years, Baldacci assembled a relatively vast transition team.

A Transition Advisory Council had co-chairs Warren Cook and Rosalyne Bernstein and vice chair Tabitha King. Transition coordinator Larry Benoit, Baldacci’s former top aide in Congress, played a leading role as did transition policy coordinator Martha Freeman, now director of the State Planning Office.

This time around, the effort is less formal but still far-reaching. Input is available from a host of longstanding administration friends such as former House Speaker Michael Saxl, political operative Jim Mitchell and Benoit.

Lincoln said a potential source of new personnel is the pool of people involved in the governor’s re-election campaign, which was headed by Jesse Connolly.

“I would see some of that,” Lincoln said.

Overall, Lincoln deadpanned, “I’m being contacted by a number of individuals who are interested.”

There has been talk among Baldacci watchers that he was so impressed by the campaign performance of one of his election rivals – Green Independent candidate Pat LaMarche – that she could be considered for a post.

Lincoln took pains to suggest that dissatisfaction would not be driving change.

“We’ve had a great team,” she says.

Meanwhile, those officials in place are occupied with preparations for a new legislative session, with immediate priorities being “tax relief early on, … a balanced budget … (and) investments to grow job opportunities in Maine,” Lincoln said.

A new projection of state revenue is imminent and Baldacci has talked to his Cabinet about the necessity of doing more with less.

Also upcoming is a Blue Ribbon panel report on long-term financing options for the Dirigo public health care program that aims to provide coverage to Maine’s uninsured, control health care costs and improve the quality of health care.

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