AUGUSTA – Barack Obama picked up a national delegate from Maine on Sunday as the Democratic State Convention closed.

Delegates ratified the party chairman’s nomination of Gwethalyn Phillips of Bangor, a former state party official, as an “unpledged add-on” delegate as specified in party rules. But Maine Democratic Party Executive Director Arden Manning said Phillips was recognized as an active Obama supporter.

Phillips, who played a lead role in the Maine presidential campaign of Bill Clinton in 1992, said in a telephone interview she has been involved with the Obama effort this time around, “in Penobscot County in particular.”

Putting her in the Obama column brings Maine’s national delegate total to 19 for Obama and 10 for Hillary Clinton, with three superdelegates not yet committed.

State party officials said a first round of voting for national delegates on Saturday determined the number that each presidential candidate received and that the results upheld the proportion of delegates that Maine voters elected at the party’s February caucuses.

Delegates finished business for the three-day gathering at midday Sunday following final action on a party platform that voices opposition to the Iraq war and support for Roe v. Wade, a fair and progressive tax system, universal health care and non-privatized Social Security.

Looking toward this fall’s general elections, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, who was the Saturday night keynote speaker, and state coordinated campaign director Peter Chandler both pledged that Maine Democrats would mount a major grass-roots campaign across the state.

Durbin said state Democrats were preparing “a field effort in Maine the likes of which the state has never seen.”

In addition to the presidential contest, November balloting in Maine will feature a Senate election in which Democrats hope to unseat two-term Republican incumbent Susan Collins. Two Democratic candidates, six-term Rep. Tom Allen and political neophyte Tom Ledue, are vying for the nomination that will be awarded in the June 10 primary voting.

Allen’s Senate candidacy has brought out six Democratic candidates for the 1st District congressional nomination: former Common Cause chairwoman Chellie Pingree of North Haven, state Sen. Ethan Strimling of Portland, York County District Attorney Mark Lawrence of South Berwick, Portland lawyer Adam Cote, former state Senate Majority Leader Michael Brennan of Portland and Dr. Steve Meister of Winthrop.

Second District Democratic incumbent Mike Michaud is unopposed for nomination to a fourth term.

Four years ago in Democratic State Convention voting, 24 pledged national delegate positions were apportioned among the top three finishers in the Maine caucuses. Eventual nominee John Kerry claimed 11 slots, Howard Dean seven and Dennis Kucinich six.

Kerry went on to win Maine in the general election, besting President George W. Bush by 54 percent to 45 percent and putting Maine in the Democratic column for the fourth presidential election in a row.

AP-ES-06-01-08 1426EDT