ELLSWORTH, Maine — Republican Matt Foster held an edge of a few hundred votes over Democrat Bill Entwisle around 10 p.m. Tuesday in the contest to become the next District Attorney for Hancock and Washington counties.
Foster, a private practice attorney, had 5,116 votes while the veteran prosecutor had 4,896 — a difference of 220 votes or 3 percentage points. Of the 90 total precincts in the two counties, only 15 had reported their results.
Entwisle ran on his 11 years of experience as a prosecutor, first under former District Attorney Michael Povich and for the past four years under outgoing District Attorney Carletta “Dee” Bassano.
Foster ran as an outsider who will try to reform the office, which he said has lost the confidence of the public. He said disciplinary action that Assistant District Attorney Mary Kellett faced last year, when the Maine Board of Overseers of the Board determined she had violated bar rules, demonstrated that the District Attorney’s office for the two counties has been poorly managed.
Foster ran against Bassano in the general election in 2010 and lost by 635 votes. Steve Juskewitch, an independent at the time, also ran in the November 2010 election and finished more than 4,000 votes behind Foster.
