MILLINOCKET, Maine — A former state Senate president and a man convicted of conspiracy to commit murder hope to help revive one of Maine’s most economically-challenged towns as newly-elected leaders.
Former state Sen. Charles Pray received 1,031 votes in an uncontested Town Council race, and Jesse Dumais, a McDonald’s restaurant manager and political newcomer, received 528 votes in a five-way race for two open three-year seats. Tuesday’s outcome left Jimmy Busque, one of the town’s most experienced councilors, out of office for the first time in 12 years.
The election results, officials said, are a sign that voters recognize Millinocket’s need to change dramatically to cope with its severe economic problems.
“It’s astonishing. I feel overwhelmed. I thought I had a decent chance. I didn’t think I was going to win the thing,” said Dumais, who served eight years of a 10-year prison sentence and was released in 2005.
Also elected to the council was Paul Sannicandro, a trail supervisor at Baxter State Park who helped build the Katahdin region’s first networked multi-use recreational trail as a volunteer. He finished behind Dumais with 520 votes, Deputy Town Clerk Diana Campbell said. The two will replace Busque and Councilor Bryant Davis, who did not seek re-election.
Cody McEwen received 446 votes, Busque 406 and Eric Buckingham Jr. 187 votes, respectively, in the race for the two three-year seats, Campbell said. Pray, 70, replaces Richard Theriault , who resigned in August with a year left on his three-year term, and retired mill worker Louis Pelletier received 1,003 votes in running unopposed for a two-year term available because of Anita Mueller’s resignation in August.
The election drew 36 percent, or 1,143 residents out of 3,164 of the town’s registered voters, Campbell said.
Town Clerk Roxanne Johnson said the turnout was unusually strong, given the lack of presidential or congressional races this year. Such elections typically draw 10 to 20 percent of eligible voters.
Sannicandro and Busque did not return requests for comment on Wednesday.
Dumais, Pelletier and Pray said they thought voter frustration with the town’s poor economy, or with council dysfunction, were the biggest reasons for the newcomers being elected.
The paper mill that was once the town’s leading employer and taxpayer closed in 2008 and was razed last year while the council, which appears to have no economic development plan, shelved a plan offered by an outside consultant in January. This occurred despite the town having an unemployment rate double the state average, a $29.66 property tax rate per $1,000 of valuation and an unprecedented number of tax foreclosures.
“[Voters] all seem to think they have to do something” to reduce taxes, said Pelletier.
Instead of the council, the leaders of efforts to improve the town’s economy for the last year have been volunteers, including many former town residents, whom the council has supported.
“[Voters] keep saying to me, ‘We need new blood. We need a younger generation in there.’ Being 40, I am younger here but also old enough to have had some life experiences,” Dumais said.
Dumais has had his share of difficult life experiences. He was convicted in 1998 after encouraging a friend to assault a man who was due to testify against Dumais in court. The victim needed 38 stitches to close a wound to his neck. Dumais discovered in prison that the criminal life wasn’t for him and has since reconciled with the victim.
“I think the frustration is being taken out on the council in some ways on what’s happened in the community,” Pray said. Busque “was the only one they could express their frustrations on.”
Voters, Pray said, might also have been dismayed that Busque, a vehement opponent of a proposed North Woods national park, committed an ethical gaffe when he altered a 2011 council resolve against the park and gave it to the state Legislature’s Joint Standing Commission on the Judiciary.
The alteration reflected support for a 2014 state bill that would have limited the federal government’s ability to buy Maine land to 5 square miles. At the council’s prompting, Busque made a public apology for his error in April, and Mueller cited it as among several examples of council dysfunction when she resigned.
Theriault said he resigned because the council dealt with trivial issues rather than tackling the town’s larger problems, such as the economy.
Pray’s political career has been extensive. He was a state senator from 1975-92, serving nine terms. Those terms included four years as assistant minority leader, two years as majority leader and four terms as senate president. He also was a senior advisor of Intergovernmental Affairs in the U.S. Department of Energy during the Bill Clinton administration.
The town’s opposition to the proposed 150,000 acre national park and recreation area for land east of Baxter State Park seems unchanged by the election. Dumais, Pray and Sannicandro have said they oppose it.
Pelletier supports the park initiative but said it had little to do with his being elected. Voters were more interested in controlling government spending and lowering the town’s tax rate, which is among the highest in the state, he said.
The four new councilors are due to be sworn in at a special council meeting at 7 p.m. Monday.