BY PAUL CARRIER

BlethenMaine Newspapers

The Maine People's Alliance, a grassroots organization with a liberal agenda, is launching a large-scale effort to sign up new voters in Maine and stimulate interest among existing voters who rarely cast ballots.

A spokeswoman for the group says the campaign is non-partisan and is not designed to promote specific political candidates.

The alliance plans to mobilize 900 to 1,000 volunteers to make 125,000 telephone calls and knock on 100,000 doors across the state, according to Amy Thompson, the organization's communications and development director.

The goal is to persuade more than 89,000 new or inactive voters to cast ballots in the Nov. 4 general election.

In a similar campaign two years ago that focused on defeating the Taxpayer Bill of Rights spending-cap referendum, the alliance used more than 400 volunteers to visit 71,000 homes and call 50,000 Mainers, Thompson said. Voters rejected the TABOR referendum in 2006, 54 percent to 46 percent.

Thompson said the latest campaign is not only larger than the one two years ago but also broader. Volunteers will sound out Mainers on a range of issues, including health-care reform, ending the war in Iraq, eliminating toxic substances from consumer products and what Thompson called "fair and comprehensive immigration reform."

"This is not a partisan effort," Thompson said, but rather a drive to get so-called progressives to take part in the political process.

In addition to registering new voters in immigrant and refugee communities in Portland and Lewiston, she said, the alliance will use a database of existing voters to contact those who rarely cast ballots.

"We're going to engage anybody we can," Thompson said.

Thompson said the alliance has state and federal political-action committees that will endorse candidates, but the voter drive is separate from that process and is not geared toward promoting candidates.

The effort is part of a national campaign to organize voters that is loosely coordinated by the Washington-based Center for Community Change.

Some observers say the Maine campaign may help Democrats more than Republicans, as Mainers prepare to cast ballots on Nov. 4 for president, a U.S. senator, two members of the U.S. House and all 186 state legislators.

"I would take them at their word" that the alliance is not trying to drum up support for anyone in particular, said Julie O'Brien, executive director of the Maine Republican Party. But she said the alliance's positions on issues such as health care and the environment "seem to be those that Democrats would be likely to support."

If the alliance succeeds in putting 1,000 volunteers into the field, O'Brien said, "that's a massive effort" to boost voter turnout.

Rebecca Pollard, spokeswoman for the Maine Democratic Party, said she did not know enough about the alliance's effort to pass judgment on whether Democratic candidates are more likely to benefit from it. But she praised the alliance's determination to boost participation.

"I certainly think any increase in the number of voters is good for democracy," she said.

In top-of-the-ticket races this year, Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain are fighting it out for the presidency.

GOP Sen. Susan Collins hopes to beat back a challenge from Democrat Tom Allen, a congressman from the 1st Congressional District who is leaving the House after more than a decade in office. Herbert Hoffman, an independent, also will be on the ballot.

The race for Allen's soon-to-be-vacant 1st District seat pits Democrat Chellie Pingree against Republican Charles Summers.

In the 2nd Congressional District, incumbent Democratic Rep. Michael Michaud faces Republican challenger John Frary.

Both major parties are vying for control of the Legislature, where Democrats currently have a slim majority in the 35-member Senate and a substantial majority in the 151-member House of Representatives.