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Primaries for governor and seats in Congress will dominate the headlines ahead of Maine’s June 9 primaries, but continued school strife stemming from taxpayer discontent and culture wars will also be on the ballot.
Here are three local races to watch among the battles for budget, selectmen and school board.
Augusta Democrats push to vote down the city’s budget.
In a reversal of typical school budget vote dynamics, those seeking to increase school funding in Augusta are campaigning against the city’s budget, which would require deep cuts at the district.
The City Council voted earlier this month to put forward a $91 million budget that would force cuts to more than 20 school positions. Budget validations typically fail due to conservative pushback on higher levels of spending, which happened repeatedly across the state last year.
But it is Augusta Democrats who are pushing back against a proposed budget put forward by the city’s conservative council. After the city opted to add an additional ballot question on whether the budget was too high or too low, the party committee endorsed a “no” vote on the budget, with a “too low” vote on the additional advisory question meant to inform the council.
If voters reject the budget, the second question could guide what the council does next.
A provocateur with a protection order against him is running to join a board he recently sued.
Augusta residents will also weigh whether to elect Nicholas Blanchard, a right-wing activist known by his online moniker “Corn Pop,” to the school board. Over the last year and a half, Blanchard has repeatedly turned up to school board meetings to protest policies allowing transgender girls to play on girls sports teams and use girls’ private spaces.
He was shut down by the board’s chair, Martha Witham, for using offensive or vulgar language. Blanchard sued on First Amendment grounds. Last month, he won an initial battle when a court ordered Augusta to stop enforcing part of its public comment policy. A city councilor won a protection order against him after reporting harassment in April, the Kennebec Journal reported.
While Blanchard has earned a large social media following, politically purple Augusta has shown limited appetite for Blanchard-style politics in the past. Last year, board member Rita Pello fended off a challenge from Kelly Smith, a parents’ rights activist.
There is another politically charged school clash in Berwick.
Berwick voters are deciding between two candidates running for the MSAD 60 school board. One is its current vice chair; the other is a conservative culture warrior.
MSAD 60 drew statewide attention after the 2023 election of write-in candidate Joshua Tabor, a parents’ rights activist and the leader of Maine Girl Dads, which pushed for a statewide referendum on barring transgender girls from sports and spaces aligning with their gender identities.
Tabor declined to run for reelection, and was replaced by a conservative candidate in an April election. The board may get another parents-rights focused candidate in June. While relatively few school board candidates across the state are campaigning with overtly political messaging, Mathew Roy is an exception.
“There is no hope for real change with Peg Wheeler still sitting on the board,” he said of his opponent in a recent Facebook post. “Her DEI-driven, Democrat ideology is not what taxpayers want for their children … Peg seems more concerned with allowing boys in girls’ bathrooms and letting them compete on girls’ sports teams than focusing on academics and student success.”
Wheeler is campaigning for a return to normalcy after viral conflicts at board meetings caused the district to beef up its police presence earlier this year.
“The past several years have been very challenging for the board as well as for district admin and teachers,” she said in a Facebook post this week. “My personal goal, if re-elected, would be to do every possible thing to bring us back to a place of civility.”
Daniel O’Connor is a Report for America corps member who covers rural government as part of the partnership between the Bangor Daily News and The Maine Monitor, with additional support from BDN and Monitor readers.