What are the qualifications for becoming a maintainer? Is the bar set high? Is there a vetting process? I am interested but I'm not sure they will accept just anyone as a maintainer.
You should definitely send a message to the gedit mailing list mailing declaring your desire to take over maintainership. If nobody replies send to a more general Gnome list.
I'd actually be interested to read a public reply to a potential maintainer for one of their unmaintained projects.