(UPDATE: 12:24 p.m. July 2. New information has been added below.)



My, O my, now we're witnessing partisan fights over letters of the alphabet. It must be summer.

There's a Republican in Maine -- more than one, actually -- who's pondering a campaign for governor.

His name is Les Otten.

There's a Democrat in Maine named Arden Manning. In fact, he's the executive director of the Maine Democratic Party.

No doubt in the interests of bipartisanship, Manning decided to give Otten's 3-day-old candidacy exploration a gift of priceless publicity internationally in the already crowded 10-candidate field for Maine's gubernatorial primaries in 11 months.

Manning's already called attention to -- well, he objected to, would be more accurate -- Otten's possible campaign logo on his possible campaign website. (See top image.)

Manning claims the red-white-and-blue-and-green logo bears a remarkable resemblance to the campaign logo of one Barack Obama (see image at right), who raised $750 million with it to win the White House last November.

And still uses the red-white-and-blue O to rouse support for the new president's ambitious programs and to pressure members in Congress through Organizing for America.

When yOu think abOut it, O is really a pretty cOmmOn letter.

But then Manning appears to shOOt his own argument in the fOOt by saying, "Barack Obama was not elected president because he had a snazzy graphic and well-designed website."

Otten, a businessman and former minority owner of the Boston Red Sox, needlessly nOtes that his last name also begins with a capital O and says the lOgO was designed frOm scratch lOcally.

AnOther similarity in the Obama and Otten websites is they bOth prOminently seek dOnatiOns.

Otten's campaign alsO pOints Out the Obama lOgO bears a remarkable resemblance tO the Pepsi lOgO (see image at left), which has been arOund even lOnger than any Of them.

And contains no letter O.

(UPDATE: The Maine O has added an updated message to his page now:

The highly partisan elements of the Maine Democratic Party didn't waste much time before they began running a negative campaign against us. I guess it shows how concerned they are about the positive reforms we're going to bring to Augusta.

Our campaign is going to focus on solving Maine's problems like how we create new jobs and solve Maine's energy problems. If you're tired of politics as usual, please donate here today so we can tell others about our positive agenda. Thanks for visiting. And I look forward to seeing you on the campaign trail.-- Les)

And Les suggests you honor this promise by donating now.

-- Andrew MalcOlm

Click Over here for Twitter alerts on each new Ticket item. Or follow us @latimestot