McKernan's opponent was James E. Tierney, former Majority Leader of the Maine House and state Attorney General – though he did also face two independent candidates, Sherry Huber and John Menario.

He based his campaign on better schools and better jobs, believing them to be the keys to making Maine (in his words) "the very best place in America to live, to work and to raise a family."

He helped initiate a $1.35-million fund to create "centers of innovation," designed to position Maine at the cutting edge of the next technological change.

He also worked to expand job training programs, structured to enable the state to quickly change the skills being taught to meet the needs of a new employer.

An additional $5.9-million state investment in the University of Maine System was also spearheaded by the governor, intended to enhance its educational and research reputation.

[3] In his second year in office, Governor McKernan launched a public-relations campaign intended to enhance the state's image as a place to do business.

The relationship between longtime Speaker of the House John L. Martin and McKernan was poisonous, and the two had difficulty resolving differences over the state budget.

The Governor crafted a plan to eliminate or reduce welfare and job-training benefits for thousands of low-income Mainers, while Martin and the Democrats fought to keep funding at a higher level.

During his announcement for his re-election campaign, McKernan listed as important successes a growth management initiative, a trash reduction and recycling program, and a plan to remove the Kennebec River dam in Augusta by the end of the 1990s.

Troubled by difficult financial issues, McKernan reiterated his claim that Maine had responded to budget difficulties with less impact on taxpayers than other states in the New England region.

[6] The race was so close that the candidates waited until shortly before noon the following day before summoning reporters to make acceptance and concession remarks.

He threatened to invoke a 1976 law permitting the governor to make "fair and equitable" spending reductions to comply with the state's balanced-budget mandate.

His specific controversial actions included drafting plans to cut spending unilaterally and rewriting rules to give state agencies more discretion in how they allocate their reduced funds.

McKernan and the Democratic leadership (particularly John Martin) fostered an extremely hostile and adversarial climate that consumed almost every aspect of Maine government in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The wounds of those conflicts still run deep to this day, as McKernan has made repeated references to the scarred relationship between the two men since leaving office.

He was 20 years old at the time, played junior varsity baseball at Dartmouth and had recently joined the school's Beta Theta Pi fraternity.