After two decades of unsuccessfully running for state and local seats, a prominent but controversial Ellsworth businessman has been elected to a public office.
John Linnehan, 78, won one of two open seats in the five-way race for Ellsworth School Board Tuesday evening. Incumbent Kelly McKenney was elected to her fourth term in the first contested School Board election in five years.
His victory marks the first time the conservative area businessman has won an election after more than two decades of launching failed, religiously-centered campaigns for public office.
“Sometimes if there wasn’t a candidate that I thought was a good candidate, I would step up and get involved if I believed in the particular issues that were involved,” Linnehan said Wednesday. “I try to do what I believe personally is the right thing, and sometimes you have to get involved to put a spotlight on issues to make sure people are educated to know what’s happening.”
Many of those issues have centered around fiscal responsibility and Christian values, he said.
“I’ve never really run with the intent to win an election,” Linnehan said. “I just want to focus on what the issues are and try to make the public aware of how to correct them.”
He has never knocked on doors during a campaign, including this year’s School Board race, because he was more focused on bringing attention to financial accountability over winning votes.
Linnehan, who built his career as a lucrative car dealer and real estate manager, has run in every Ellsworth City Council race over the past five years — except for this election cycle, so as not to divert votes from two fiscally conservative candidates already running, he told the Bangor Daily News. One of those candidates, newcomer Robert Grant Sr., was elected Tuesday.
Last year, Linnehan, a lifelong Ellsworth resident who married high school sweetheart, Heather, lost his council bid by just two votes.
Linnehan, who describes himself as an original intent constitutionalist, has also competed for several Maine House and Senate seats in past years.
Most recently, he lost in 2022 to Democrat J. Mark Worth for House District 13, which includes Ellsworth, Waltham and Fletcher’s Landing. That seat is currently held by Republican Russell White, who held a narrow lead on Democrat Micheal Cunningham II in Tuesday night’s election.
Linnehan launched unsuccessful bids for the state Senate in 2004 and 2020.
The longtime political candidate has come under past public fire for various controversies around business and private School Board matters.
He was kicked off the School Board of a now-defunct Trenton Christian school, for which he was a major financial supporter. He then tried to bar school officials from accessing the Route 3 building, where he served as property manager. The School Board later sued Linnehan and others.
“If I feel an issue is not being represented biblically, spiritually or in a constitutional manner, I’m always prone to take up the defense or offense, whatever it takes to get that corrected,” Linnehan said.