A lawyer from Lincoln County is challenging incumbent District Attorney Natasha Irving for the Democratic nomination.
Barbara Ann Cray, a commercial litigator and active Democrat from Westport Island who has worked as a public defender, calls for a progressive approach to prosecution that emphasizes “new ideas.”
Irving, the first woman and first Democrat elected to be the midcoast’s DA, immediately fired back at her challenger, suggesting in a statement that Cray is looking for a retirement gig after “a career spent in California, devoted to the financial institutions that squeeze every last dime from us.”
Cray filed her intent to seek the District 6 prosecutorial seat on Jan. 8, two days after Irving filed her intent to seek reelection. The office serves as the prosecutor for Knox, Waldo, Lincoln and Sagadahoc counties.
Cray said that upon moving to Maine in 2018, she immediately immersed herself in volunteer and advocacy work. From 2018 to 2023, she volunteered as a facilitator with the Restorative Justice Project of Maine and currently serves on the Somerville-based Regional School Unit 12 School Board. And she volunteers with several organizations, including the Maine Women’s Lobby (which gave her a service award in 2024), the Maine Council on Aging, Planned Parenthood of New England, the League of Women Voters and more. She is also on the board of the Maine Film Association.
Her law practice primarily does criminal defense work for the state, serving as a court-appointed counsel through the Maine Commission on Public Defense Services, providing legal representation pursuant to the Sixth Amendment for those who cannot afford counsel. She serves as a mediator in the Maine state courts for the Court Alternative Dispute Resolution Services program, regularly serving as a mediator of small claims and eviction cases, primarily in Lincoln County.
Cray is also very active in Maine Democratic politics, serving as a president of the Westport Island Democratic Committee, a member of the Lincoln County Democrats’ Executive Committee, a member of the Maine Democratic State Committee and chair of its platform committee. She was a delegate for the state of Maine at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 2024. And she was an organizer and is president of the newly formed Maine Federation of Democratic Women. She graduated from candidate training programs offered by the Campaign School at Yale and Emerge Maine, which trains Democratic women to run for public office.
Cray said she loves to sing, and since 2018, has been a member of Tapestry Singers of Midcoast Maine.
Cray said she is running because “it is time for a new outlook and new ideas.”
“I would like to implement a community justice approach,” she said, explaining that she would seek “strong collaborative relationships” with law enforcement and county commissioners while also working to educate the public about the criminal justice system, such as by visiting local schools. “I will try to facilitate a collaboration between residents, law enforcement, and social services to prevent crime, improve the justice system, and determine root causes of crime.”
Cray said she would pursue restorative justice programs “in appropriate cases” and create programs where community members could volunteer to provide services and support for people in the criminal justice system. Restorative justice is a reform-minded approach to criminal justice that focuses on repairing harm rather than just punishing wrongdoing. It brings together victims, offenders and community leaders to talk about what happened, take accountability, and decide how to make things right.
“The laws will be enforced, and appropriate punishment will be sought. Sexual violence and abuse is not OK; victims will be protected and supported,” she said. “With my experience in financial fraud, I will endeavor to prevent fraud by educating potential victims, but will prosecute bad actors. Prosecutions will occur as needed to make and keep our communities safe and healthy.”
According to her law office website, Cray is a preeminent commercial litigator with more than 25 years of experience representing financial institutions. Her law office is in Brunswick. Cray is a graduate of Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco. She became a member of the Maine Bar in December 2018 and now practices banking law in Maine and California. Between 1993 and 2006, Cray served as a temporary judge for the Santa Clara County Superior Court in California. In 2006, she trained for and was appointed as a mediator for the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California.
Irving was first elected to the seat in 2018, unseating Republican Jonathan Liberman 41,000 votes to 34,000. Liberman had been appointed to the post after his predecessor, Geoffrey Rushlau, was appointed as a district court judge. She was reelected in 2022 without a challenger.
Irving was born and raised in Waldoboro. After college in New Orleans and then law school at the University of Maine School of Law, she worked as a labor organizer, a political organizer and then opened her own law practice. She now lives in Rockland.
Irving also ran on a reformist platform focused on restorative justice for nonviolent offenses and has followed that policy during her two terms as the midcoast’s top prosecutor.
In response to Cray’s announcement, Irving underscored her own commitment to social justice and underscored her Maine roots. “Midcoast Mainers deserve a District Attorney devoted to fighting for working Mainers, our communities, our friends and families. Attorney Cray retired from a career spent in California, devoted to the financial institutions that squeeze every last dime from us. In retirement, she wants to run our criminal justice system,” Irving said.
“I will fight to put Maine families and community safety first, holding serious violent offenders accountable. I will continue the work of decriminalizing poverty and addiction, and creating a more restorative and fiscally responsible criminal justice system that always values people over profit,” she continued. “Holding a public office is a privilege that I do not take for granted, and I will work for every vote to become the Democratic nominee.”
The Democratic primary will be held June 9. Candidates have until March 16 to file paperwork for that ballot. Candidates not enrolled in any political party (also called independents) have until June 1 to file their nomination papers to get on the Nov. 3 general election ballot along with the winners of the primaries.
No one else has filed an intent to seek the seat so far.
This story appears through a media partnership with Midcoast Villager.