Maine's Senate Race in "Chaos" Without Olympia Snowe PORTLAND, Me. - Senator Olympia J. Snowe's surprise announcement that she will retire set off frantic political calculations throughout Maine on Wednesday, with former governors, members of the state's Congressional delegation and many others hurriedly weighing runs for office that they had previously ruled out. Candidates need 2,000 certified signatures to qualify for the Senate primary ballot, and with the March 15 filing deadline only two weeks away, that seemed an improbable feat for anyone who was not already well organized and well financed. By day's end, Representatives Michael H. Michaud and Chellie Pingree and former Gov. John Baldacci, all Democrats, had picked up nominating petitions from the secretary of state's office, an initial step toward running. And a number of other prominent Mainers, including former Gov. Angus King, an independent, and the president of the State Senate, Kevin L. Raye, a Republican, said they were seriously considering runs for Ms. Snowe's seat. At least 10 others, including several members of the Legislature, took out papers to run for Maine's two House seats, acting on the assumption that Ms. Pingree, Mr. Michaud or both will seek the Senate seat. "I would describe it as chaos," said Mark Brewer, a political scientist at the University of Maine, summing up the scramble in Augusta, the capital. The rumors are coming too fast to even consider whether they might have some basis in fact. Gov. Paul R. LePage, a Republican, could submit emergency legislation to extend the filing deadline, but his spokeswoman said Wednesday that he had no plans to do so "at this time." As Internet domain names were snapped up and drafting efforts initiated, voters around the state were still processing the shock of Ms. Snowe's impending exit at the end of her third term and after nearly four decades in Republican politics. "I hate to see her go," said John Thomas, a Republican voter who was on his way to the grocery store in Belfast on Wednesday. She made sense to me. Ms. Snowe and Maine's other senator, Susan Collins, also a Republican, are among the most moderate members of the Senate, and political strategists said they expected voters here would want a similarly minded replacement for Ms. Snowe. "I don't think we're looking for a partisan," said Charlie Webster, the state's Republican chairman, though he added that someone "just a little bit more to the right" than Ms. Snowe would be nice. Mr. Webster dismissed the idea that the only Republican currently in the race, Scott D'Amboise, a conservative small business owner from Lisbon Falls who had struggled for traction against Ms. Snowe, could be the party's nominee. "There's a short list of eight or nine people I've spoken to over the last 24 hours," Mr. Webster said, "and we're trying to figure out what's going to happen." On the Democratic side, the main question seemed to be whether Ms. Pingree or Mr. Michaud would be the stronger candidate in a general election. Ms. Pingree is perceived as more liberal, which plays well among Democrats in southern Maine but not necessarily in the state's more conservative northern reaches, which Mr. Michaud, a former millworker, represents. In a statement released on Wednesday afternoon, Ms. Pingree said that November's election would be "incredibly important for Maine" and that she was "carefully considering" whether to run for the Senate. In perhaps the most interesting development on Wednesday, Mr. King, the popular independent, who served two terms as governor from 1995 to 2003, said he was seriously considering entering the race. Independent candidates must collect 4,000 signatures, but have until June 1 to do so. "I had no plans to run for anything," said Mr. King, who teaches at Bowdoin College and is a principal in a wind power company. But Senator Snowe's announcement of why she was leaving made me think about giving it a try. In announcing her plans on Tuesday, Ms. Snowe, who was considered a shoo-in for re-election, denounced the "atmosphere of polarization and "my way or the highway" ideologies" that she said had become "pervasive in campaigns and in our governing institutions." Mr. King said, "I would go down there not trying to play on one of those teams, but to stand outside and try to draw some attention to "Hey, guys, let's get the problems solved." " Eliot Cutler, an independent who narrowly lost the 2010 governor's race to Mr. LePage, told The Bangor Daily News that he, too, was thinking about running. Maine voters have a history of supporting independents. Another independent governor, James B. Longley, served from 1975 to 1979, and Ross Perot won 30 percent of the vote here as a presidential candidate in 1992, one of his best showings. While some mulled jumping into the Senate race, others mulled jumping out. State Senator Cynthia Dill, a Democrat who had declared her candidacy, said she would bow out and run for the House instead if Ms. Pingree joined the Senate race. Ms. Dill said that for now, she would gather signatures for both races. "I don't see the benefit of waiting," she said, adding, "Hopefully, it's going to quickly settle down to who has the drive, the organization, the resources and the vision." Andrew Ian Dodge, a self-described former Tea Party activist who was running against Ms. Snowe as a Republican but left the party recently to run as an independent, said he was jubilant about the abrupt turn of events. "This," he said, "is the opportunity of a lifetime." Jess Bidgood contributed reporting from Boston, and Murray Carpenter from Belfast, Me.