Candidates for governor filed their first campaign finance reports last week for this year’s race and Gov. John Baldacci and Republican Sen. Peter Mills lead the crowded pack in fund-raising.

Baldacci, who is running as a traditionally funded candidate and has no limits on what he can raise, has brought in $199,566 since he officially announced his re-election campaign. The governor has no competition within the Democratic Party.

Former Republican Congressman David Emery, the other traditionally funded candidate in the race, has raised $30,715.

Mills, who is running as a clean election candidate so he can get public funding for his campaign, has raised $39,445 in seed money against a cap of $50,000.

Sen. Chandler Woodcock, also a clean-election Republican, raised $12,445 in seed money.

Green Party clean-election candidate, Pat LaMarche, raised $3,080, and, independent clean-election candidate Nancy Oden raised $2,147.

There is no requirement that clean-election candidates raise any seed money – used to get their campaign started – but they all must gather signatures and $5 checks from 2,500 registered voters by April 18 to qualify for publicly financed campaign funds.

Once they qualify, clean-election candidates for governor can get $200,000 for their primary races and $400,000 for their general election campaigns and possibly more, depending on what their traditionally financed opponents spend.

The campaign finance reports filed Tuesday cover the time when the candidates first announced to the end of December 2005.

-Victoria Wallack, Maine Statehouse News