AUGUSTA (AP) – Gov. John Baldacci proposed a second term for Chief Justice Leigh Saufley of the Maine supreme court on Wednesday as he posted six judicial nominations. All would be reappointments.

Saufley, who lives in Portland, has served as chief justice of the law court since 2001. She joined the state’s highest court as an associate justice in 1997.

Also put forth by Baldacci for new terms are another law court member, Justice Jon Levy of Portland, Superior Court Justices E. Allen Hunter of Caribou and Joseph Jabar of Waterville and District Court Judges John Beliveau of Lewiston and John David Kennedy of North Yarmouth.

Judicial nominees are reviewed by the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee and must be confirmed by the state Senate.

“These distinguished members of the Maine courts have impeccable records serving the people and the laws of this state,” Baldacci said in a statement.

“I am pleased to put their names forward so they can continue to provide the highest level of integrity, talent and temperament to the bench.”

A new report by the state Judicial Compensation Commission recommends anew pay hikes for judges.

“After more than 10 years of reviewing the topic of judicial compensation, the commission remains convinced that the costs of providing needed improvements to judicial salaries is crucial towards insuring the continuance of a high quality judiciary,” the report says.

Commission recommendations covering a range of positions on the bench would boost salaries from, for example, $138,294 to $151,074 for the supreme court chief justice, and from $112,145 to $122,493 for District Court judges.

According to the commission, Maine’s judicial compensation ranking among the states most recently was 37th for chief justices, 42nd for associate justices and 39th for general jurisdiction judges.

Saufley, who is Maine’s first female chief justice of the supreme court, worked at the Maine Department of the Attorney General, the U.S. Veterans Administration and in private practice before being appointed to the bench.

She sat on the District Court from 1990 to 1993 and was a Superior Court judge from 1993 to 1997.

Saufley, a graduate of the University of Maine and the University of Maine School of Law, declared in her prepared State of the Judiciary address last year that Maine was falling behind in meeting the cost of providing constitutionally required court-appointed attorneys to defendants and that Maine courts also were not keeping pace with demands to computerize information.

“We can’t allow fiscal shortages to stifle our willingness to improve,” Saufley said.