LEWISTON – The city may never know what it’s missing without Keith “Caveman” Desrochers’ name on February’s mayoral ballot.

“I don’t think they would have known what to do with me,” said Desrochers, owner of Caveman’s Classic Art Studio on Lisbon Street.

Desrochers, who opened his Lisbon Street tattoo parlor in 2002, said he went down to Lewiston City Hall Wednesday morning intending to run for mayor.

“I’ve had my own problems and I know they’d bring that all up – OUIs, run-ins with the law,” he said. “But I’d bring it all up first before they could. And then, what would they have to talk about?”

Alas, he wasn’t a registered voter and that makes him not eligible to run for city office.

“I probably wouldn’t have won, but it would have given me a great chance to say some things,” he said. “And I have a lot to say.”

Three candidates did make the list Tuesday and started passing their petitions to get on the Feb. 27 ballot Wednesday morning. They include City Councilor Normand Rousseau, former police Chief Larry Gilbert and perennial candidate Charles Soule.

To qualify for the mayor’s race, candidates need to be at least 20-years-old and a registered Lewiston voter since Aug. 5, 2006. They need to collect at least 100 signatures from qualified Lewiston voters by Jan. 7 to get their names on the ballot.

The winner will sit in the mayor’s chair until December 2007, the remainder of Lionel Guay’s term. Guay resigned the post in November.

Everyone, winners or losers in the Feb. 27 ballot, can run for a full two-year term in November.

Desrochers said he took care of his problem Wednesday, and registered to vote. Now he’s pushing a write-in candidacy for the mayor’s job and said he’s thinking about running in November’s election.

“I don’t think I’d have any problem getting 100 signatures,” he said. “I know that many people that would sign just on Lisbon Street.”