AUGUSTA (AP) – Gov. John Baldacci said Saturday the nation’s governors left their meeting with President-elect Barack Obama with a sense of optimism that transcended party lines. He also said he’s hopeful that both parties can work together to solve problems in Maine.

In his weekly radio address, Baldacci said he agrees that there’s a time for campaigning and a time for governing, and “right now our country needs our lawmakers to govern.”

“President-elect Obama stressed to all governors that reaching across party lines will be more important than ever. He told us that he is extending the same hand of friendship and the same commitment to partnership to Republicans and Democrats alike,” said Baldacci, a Democrat.

Baldacci’s comments build on a bipartisan sentiment that marked last week’s opening of what’s expected to be a difficult legislative session in Augusta.

Republicans, who are minorities in both chambers, threw their support behind Democrats Elizabeth Mitchell of Vassalboro, who’ll serve as Senate president, and Hannah Pingree of North Haven, the new House speaker, in a gesture of bipartisanship.

Mitchell said Saturday that virtually all lawmakers have pledged to work together in a spirit of bipartisanship. And she says they mean it.

“Perhaps a crisis will bring out the best in us,” she said. “We have a very serious budget problem to solve and it’s going to take the best thinking of everyone in the building – everyone. We cannot afford to waste the talents of those who were just elected.”

Baldacci already ordered an $80 million curtailment that accounts for more than half of a budget shortfall for the current fiscal year. And lawmakers face an even more daunting challenge – a projected shortfall of at least $500 million – for the coming two-year cycle.

Baldacci met with Obama last week at the National Governors Association meeting in Philadelphia, where Obama outlined an economic stimulus plan that could exceed $500 billion over two years.

Republican and Democratic governors, sitting together in Congress Hall, gave Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden a standing ovation. Obama made a point of promising Republican governors “the hand of friendship, the same commitment to partnership as a do my Democratic colleagues.”

Baldacci said that never before have governors met so early with an incoming an administration. “To put this in perspective, we were meeting with the new administration so early that many of the staff members had not even had business cards printed,” he said.

Copy the Story Link