What about a single six-year term for Maine's governor?

Soon we'll be immersed in the atmospherics of gubernatorial campaigns as Republicans and Democrats and Green Independents and maybe just plain Independents vie to replace Gov. John Baldacci, who can't run again -- until 2014, anyway.

Preparing for this political theater has made me rethink the issue of gubernatorial terms that intrigued me when I worked for former Gov. Angus King -- a single six-year term for a Maine governor instead of two four-year terms.

There are 11 states that do not limit the terms of their chief executives, including Massachusetts and Connecticut. Thirty-six states, including Maine, follow the federal model and allow two four-year terms.

Maine's Constitution was amended in 1957 to increase a governor's term from two to four years. New Hampshire and Vermont still require their governors to run for election every two years, the only states left with such a provision, although most started that way.

If chief executives learn the job in the first year, spend the second and third year doing the job, and spend the fourth year running for re-election, the productivity of those middle years is lost in a two-year term, which is why most states have voted to go with four-year terms.

The history in my lifetime suggests that incumbency carries an electoral advantage. Every governor in my memory who has sought a second term has won it (Kenneth Curtis, Joseph Brennan, John McKernan, King, Baldacci). Gov. Jim Longley probably would have won re-election had his health allowed him to seek it, even though his relationship with insiders in Augusta was non-existent.

Fear of excessive gubernatorial power that a six-year term might create seems irrational -- since any governor who wants to serve eight years seemingly can.

A six-year term would eliminate the loss of executive time spent campaigning for re-election. Speaking only from my front row seat during former King's re-election campaign, a pause in the work of a chief executive becomes a necessity. An incumbent governor needs to become a candidate or be accused of hiding from voters in the Blaine House.

When an incumbent governor becomes a candidate for re-election, he's asking voters to judge not just himself and his views but four years of work by his cabinet, staff and all state employees.

I know that burdened King -- he wanted to be able to represent everyone's work well and have it affirmed by the voters. It wasn't just about him anymore, as it was in the first campaign.

A six-year term would allow a governor to engage in longer-term planning. Many challenges facing the state don't lend themselves to quick solutions. The AMHI consent decree dealing with services to the mentally ill is a good example. King and Baldacci each started their administrations resolved to achieve compliance with the decree and worked hard to do so, but continuity and resolve get tested by the limits of time and financial resources.

The likelihood of a governor making politically difficult, but necessary, decisions would increase in a single, six-year term. A longer term gives every chief executive an opportunity to learn the art of statesmanship -- a skill that is learned, not inherited.

Relationships between the Legislature and a governor serving six years would have time to mature. The bureaucracy might be more cooperative with a chief executive who was going to stick around for six years.

The real value of a six-year term is recognition that the job of governor is very hard work. The job requires full-time and energetic focus. It's a 24/7 job every day of the year. It ages everybody who has served in the office. It's impossible to bring the same level of energy and resolve to the last two years of a second term.

A six-year term would mean that we'd be periodically electing the state's chief executive at the same time that we'd be electing a president.

Some might worry that state issues would get lost among national issues, or that the coattails of a popular presidential candidate could also carry a gubernatorial candidate of the same party.

Others might welcome the increased voter turnout that comes during a presidential election when choosing a governor.

I like the idea.

Kay Rand is former chief of staff for Maine independent Gov. Angus King.