SALEM - Salem lawyer Paul Connolly, counsel to the state Republican Party, filed Tuesday as a candidate for the GOP nomination for attorney general in the May 18 primary election.

State Republican Chairman Kevin Mannix submitted the candidate papers for Connolly with state elections officials shortly before the 5 p.m. filing deadline for the primary ballot.

Attorney General Hardy Myers, a Democrat, is running for a third term and until Tuesday had no opponent on either party ballot.

In the presidential race, Secretary of State Bill Bradbury by state law must list candidates on the primary ballot who are "generally advocated" or "recognized in the national news media."

As of Tuesday, Bradbury placed Sen. John Kerry, Rep. Dennis Kucinich and Al Sharpton on the Democratic presidential ballot and President Bush on the Republican ballot.

Perennial candidate Lyndon Larouche qualified for the Democratic presidential ballot by petition. Bradbury said he will issue a final list by March 18.

Mannix insisted the party is fielding solid contenders, such as Connolly, for the three statewide offices on the ballot. All are held by Democrats seeking re-election.

Only one of the Republican candidates has held a state elected office - state Rep. Betsy Close of Albany. She's running for the party's nomination for secretary of state against Portland businessman Fred Granum. Bradbury faces perennial candidate Paul Damian Wells of Newberg on the Democratic ballot.

Democratic State Treasurer Randall Edwards is unopposed in the primary. Clackamas management consultant business operator Jeff Caton is running on the GOP side.

Mannix said the Republican candidates "are real people and fresh faces with the public.

"We are the party of change. The Democrats have got a lot of old faces."

Except for the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican Gordon Smith, Democrats hold all elective statewide offices - including labor commissioner and school superintendent.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden is unopposed in the primary, while six relatively obscure Republicans have filed as candidates for the seat. Perhaps the best-known is Portland activist and cable TV talk show host Bruce Broussard.

Portland political analyst Jim Moore said while Democrats have gained tenure as incumbents in top offices over the past decade, the GOP has failed to cultivate challengers.

"The Republican Party is attracting people into the Legislature who basically don't seem to have the vision of imagining themselves in a higher office," Moore said.

He said potential candidates also are "scared off by the costs of running and scared off by the breadth" of having to mount a statewide campaign against incumbents.

The candidate filing deadline rarely brings major surprises in these days of increasingly expensive elections - hot state Senate races are costing a contender almost $1 million now. Major candidates generally don't wait until March to start their campaigns.

The filings showed incumbents are vacating more than two dozen state Senate and House seats.

It's not an unusually high number, but the dropout rate drew more attention than usual because a number of high-profile and seasoned lawmakers called it quits.

Those included House Majority Leader Tim Knopp, R-Bend, and the chamber's Minority Leader, Deborah Kafoury, D-Portland.

A 20-year legislative veteran, Republican Rep. Randy Miller of West Linn, announced this week that he won't seek re-election.

The former dean of the Legislature, GOP Sen. Lenn Hannon of Ashland, quit to take an appointment to the state Parole Board after serving in the Senate since 1975.

Democratic Gov. Ted Kulongoski plucked several other prominent Republicans from the House and Senate to appoint to executive branch posts.

They were Sen. John Minnis of Wood Village, husband of House Speaker Karen Minnis, and Reps. Lane Shetterly, two-term chairman of the House tax-writing panel, and Max Williams, who headed the House Judiciary Committee.

Some departing lawmakers said they simply were tired of the seemingly endless budget battles that dominated five special sessions in 2002 and the record-length 2003 regular session that didn't end until late August.