Lewiston Mayor Carl Sheline won a second term leading Maine’s second-largest city by defeating former state Rep. Jon Connor in Tuesday’s runoff election.
Sheline received 51.3 percent of votes to 48.7 percent for Connor, an Air Force veteran who served one term as a Republican lawmaker in Augusta before losing his seat in 2022. Although local offices are nonpartisan, Sheline’s victory and the outcomes of hotly contested City Council races gave liberals control of Lewiston politics.
A runoff was required after no candidate received a majority of votes in the Nov. 7 election, which came nearly two weeks after a shooter killed 18 people and injured another 13 at a bowling alley and bar. Sheline received about 45 percent and Connor received nearly 38 percent of votes to lead the four-candidate field, prompting the runoff.
Sheline, an entrepreneur who won his first term in 2021 leading the city of about 36,000 residents, has said he views substance abuse and homelessness as among Lewiston’s critical issues. Connor mentioned public safety and easing housing rules as his priorities.
City politics were upended when four conservative members met at a bar in early October to discuss business in potential violation of meeting rules before ousting Councilor Linda Scott from her role as council president after she criticized them. But the heated campaign largely stopped after the shooting.
Three of those conservatives — Rick LaChapelle, Bob McCarthy and Lee Clement — lost their seats in November to challengers Susan Longchamps, Michael Roy and David Chittim, respectively.
