Max Laird, a science teacher who ran unsuccessfully for state superintendent in 2004, is running again this year.

This time, he's running as a totally independent candidate.

Laird received the Democratic Party's letter of support in 2004, but lost in a three-way primary to incumbent Wayne Sanstead and Keith Jacobson, the Republican-supported candidate.

The superintendent position is officially nonpartisan, but each party issues a letter of support to its favored candidate. This year, Sanstead - a former school teacher, state legislator and Democratic Lt. Governor - got his party's letter with no opposition.

Republicans adjourned their state convention last week with no candidate and have until the filing deadline Friday to find somebody.

"We're still working on it," said Mike Schatz, executive director of the North Dakota Republican Party.

Schatz said there were a couple of candidates that the party is talking to, but nobody has committed to run yet.

It was the lack of a Republican candidate that brought Laird a 57-year-old Thompson resident who teaches high school science in Grand Forks into the race. He said it has long been a dream of his to pursue the state superintendent position, and this gave him a chance to enter the race with the possibility of avoiding a primary fight similar to the one he lost four years ago.

Laird said he'd run a Department of Public Instruction that is a "go-to" agency on education challenges such as funding, declining enrollment and implementation of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

"I believe schoolchildren in North Dakota deserve somebody in this office whose number one responsibility is to them, not to a party," he said.

Laird said he'd be in the race through the June primary regardless of whether the Republicans find a candidate by the end of the week.

(Reach reporter Jonathan Rivoli at 223-8482 or jonathan.rivoli@bismarcktribune.com.)