Bangor voters will have nine City Council candidates vying for their support this fall.
This year’s ballot, confirmed following Tuesday’s deadline for candidates to submit petitions, will feature the biggest pool of City Council candidates since 2019. The nine candidates will have two months to convince voters to choose them for one of three open seats.
The group is also one of Bangor’s most inexperienced fields of candidates in recent years. This is the first time in at least 10 years that no incumbent councilors are running for re-election, according to the Bangor Daily News archives.
The candidates are Daniel Carson, Justin Cartier, Susan Faloon, Steven Farren, James Gallagher, Colleen O’Neal, Reese Perkins, Angela Walker and Richard Ward.
Sitting Council Chair Cara Pelletier considered running again but told the BDN she ultimately decided against it.
Although Pelletier initially did not intend to run, she said she filed a petition after finding out that only three candidates had qualified to be on the ballot as of last Friday — four days before the petition deadline.
“I decided to take out papers just so that people would have a choice in who they vote for and wouldn’t have anyone elected by default” since there are three open seats, she said.
But after six more candidates qualified for the ballot earlier this week before the deadline on Tuesday, she decided to withdraw. “With a total of nine candidates on the ballot, Bangor’s election should be vibrant and robust. Therefore, I am prioritizing my family and bowing out of this year’s race,” Pelletier wrote Wednesday in an email to fellow councilors that she shared with the BDN.
That means nine candidates, all newcomers to the Council, will appear on the ballot this year.
Candidates are listed in alphabetical order. The BDN will do a full preview later this fall, prior to Election Day on Nov. 4.
Daniel Carson
Carson, a labor and community organizer, said he’s running because he thinks the city needs a councilor “who knows what it’s like to be working class and who understands the challenges faced by Bangor’s working class families.” He named housing costs and transportation as key issues, saying he wants Bangor to restore and expand weekend service for the Community Connector bus.
Carson is also involved with the Communist Party of Maine and the Brewer-based nonprofit Food AND Medicine, he said. He clarified that he is a registered Democrat and his affiliation with the Communist Party of Maine “means [that] I am a person who believes that working class people should be in the driver’s seat of this country.”
Justin Cartier
Cartier, a carpenter, said he wants Bangor to cut down on spending, improve public safety and become more business-friendly. “I really don’t like the direction the city’s been headed in, and I think the taxes are getting out of control,” he said. Cartier ran unsuccessfully for a state House seat last year.
He added that he would bring a unique perspective to the council as someone in recovery from alcoholism who spent time at the Bangor Area Homeless Shelter before becoming sober.
Susan Faloon
Faloon, who works as a media liaison for the Maine Public Utilities Commission and owns a health and life coaching business, said she’s running to be “part of the solution” to challenges Bangor is facing related to housing and homelessness, fiscal responsibility and community development.
She also said she’d prioritize engagement with the public if elected, saying, “Residents want to be heard, and too often people don’t understand what the city government is doing. I’d love to help bridge that gap.”
Steven Farren
Farren said he was motivated to run during his monthslong battle with the city’s Historic Preservation Commission over an asphalt roof he installed over his home to replace a slate roof.
“The city is really lacking common sense right now,” he said, adding that he would try to “bring morals and ethics back to the way we make decisions” and improve transparency and fiscal responsibility on the council. Farren owns General Mechanix, a business that offers plumbing, heating and remodeling services.
James Gallagher
Gallagher owns Main Street’s Salty Brick Market and Bangin’ Whoopie. He said in a Facebook post about his campaign that his top priorities are supporting first responders and health care workers, making Bangor safer and cleaner and improving transportation and accessibility.
“Over the past few years, I have seen firsthand how many systems in our city are broken and inefficient. We’ve all felt the impact of increased criminal activity in Bangor,” Gallagher said in a Facebook video.
Colleen O’Neal
O’Neal has worked in emergency management and now serves as a case manager for the Penobscot Nation Healing to Wellness Court, which aims to help criminal offenders who have substance abuse or mental health issues.
O’Neal said she’s running because she’s unhappy with high property taxes and how the city has handled issues such as homelessness and drug use. “They can’t continue, year after year, to throw money at failed policies at taxpayers’ expense and then miraculously expect these issues to resolve themselves,” she said. Like Cartier, O’Neal also made an unsuccessful bid for state House last year.
Reese Perkins
Perkins chairs the Bangor Planning Board. He is retired and owned a home services company. He previously told the BDN it felt like a “natural progression” to run for City Council after serving on the Planning Board and the Historic Preservation Commission.
“I also don’t feel anyone is justified in complaining if you aren’t willing to pitch in and try and help fix things,” he said. “I love the city, and I just want to do what I can to help make the city a great place for us to live.”
Angela Walker
Walker is the peer services coordinator for the Bangor Area Recovery Network and is in recovery herself, according to the organization’s website. She could not be reached for comment for this story.
Richard Ward
Ward, who described his occupation as “free speech activist,” is well-known in Maine for his neo-Nazi political demonstrations, including his displays of common white supremacist symbols and images of Adolf Hitler. He moved to Bangor about a year and a half ago from Portland, where he ran unsuccessfully for City Council.
When asked about topics he hoped to address if elected to the council, Ward said he takes issue with support for undocumented immigrants and LGBTQ+ pride and thinks the city should repeal its ban on flavored tobacco.