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Former chief deputy and Republican nominee Corey Bagley was headed for victory as Hancock County’s next sheriff early Wednesday morning.
Corey Bagley held nearly a 3,000-vote lead over Dakota Dupuis in the race for Hancock County’s top law enforcement officer at around 1 a.m.
Bagley had 12,917 votes and Dupuis had 10,074 votes with 28 of 37 municipalities in the county having reported unofficial results. Bagley is an Ellsworth police detective and a former chief deputy under outgoing Sheriff Scott Kane, who chose not to seek re-election. Dupuis is a lieutenant at the sheriff’s office.
The race turned particularly divisive in its final weeks after Kane, a Republican, shared a website under his own byline accusing Bagley of steering a county contract to his father. Kane endorsed Dupuis, 31, who is running as a Democrat.
Bagley, 57, said he was not involved in awarding the contract to his father, Rudy Bagley.
The candidates and their allies traded misconduct allegations for weeks before the election.
The race for sheriff — which was the county’s first contested general election to replace an outgoing sheriff since 1980 — jumbled the usual partisan lines. Several Democratic state legislatures endorsed Bagley, while county commissioners were split on their support of the two candidates.
Bagley previously served the sheriff’s office for 31 years before his controversial departure in 2023, which led to a public battle between Kane and county commissioner William Clark, a former longtime sheriff who accused the current sheriff of pushing Bagley out to hire Kane’s brother, Patrick Kane, who previously had served as his chief deputy.
Bagley favors community policing and hopes to add a mental health liaison to the sheriff’s department, he previously said. He also wants to replicate a version of Bar Harbor’s Good Morning program, a free service that provides daily wellness checks to senior residents and adults with disabilities.
If Bagley is confirmed to be the winner, he will begin his four-year term in the position on Jan. 1, 2027.