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Beyond the myriad statewide races Mainers are facing during this year’s midterm election, Bangor voters have 12 candidates to choose from for City Council this year — the most crowded field the local office has seen in decades.
Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3. Here’s what you need to know about your polling place and the local candidates before you cast your ballot this year.
Where do I vote?
All Bangor voters are assigned the same Election Day polling place: the Cross Insurance Center at 515 Main St. Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m.
Can I register to vote on Election Day?
Yes. Maine allows same-day voter registration at your polling place. If you’re not yet registered to vote, or if you recently moved to Bangor, you can register when you go to the Cross Insurance Center on Tuesday. Bring proof of residence at your address, such as an ID or a utility bill.
Who’s running for City Council?
There are three open seats on the Bangor City Council. The Bangor Daily News has profiled all 12 candidates — you can read those stories here.
We’ve also published a story breaking down how each candidate would’ve voted on key measures that the council has decided in the last year, and videos where you can hear, in their own words, where each candidate stands on homelessness, public drug use and syringe litter, affordability and city spending, and how they’d work together to get things done.
Candidates are listed below in the order they appear on the ballot.
Joe Leonard is the only incumbent councilor running for reelection this year and has said his top priority would be implementing a wards-based voting system and a mayor. He works for an energy company and as a substitute teacher. A Democrat, Leonard also said he wants the city to invest more in housing and city staff and that he’s working to ban automatic license plate readers. He’s become a controversial figure on the council after three censures for his behavior, including one related to an outburst that cost the city nearly $100,000 when it caused a staff member to resign.
Michael Furrow is retired from the military and from a job at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. His top priority is addressing drug use and he believes illicit substances are the root of many other issues in the city. He also wants to ban syringe exchange programs and automatic license plate readers and end the construction of affordable housing in the city, which he has said is “bringing in the wrong type of people.” Furrow is the chair of the Bangor Republican Committee.
Andrei Yermakov works for the Maine People’s Alliance, one of the state’s most prominent progressive political organizations, and said his top priority would be building community and addressing what he sees as a lack of civil discourse on the council. Yermakov is a Democrat and described himself as a “long-term union guy” with experience negotiating contracts on both the union and management sides. He wants to implement a rent freeze and ban automatic license plate readers in the city.
Anthony Cote owns a construction business and said his top priority as a councilor would be to make Bangor more business-friendly. He also wants to cut the city budget and further restrict the number of needles someone can get when visiting a syringe exchange program due to his belief that those programs enable addiction. Cote described himself as a centrist and declined to share his party affiliation in an interview with the BDN, although his campaign finance registration with the city, obtained through a public records request, lists him as a Republican.
James Gallagher, owner of Bangin’ Whoopie downtown, is running for council again after coming in as the runner-up last year. Gallagher is unenrolled in a political party and wants to declare a state of emergency around homelessness and quickly establish an emergency shelter if elected. He also wants the city to explore fundraising strategies, such as lemonade stands or car washes, to support its services. He’s in the middle of many other candidates on syringe service programs, saying he sees value in them but might consider restricting needle distribution to a one-for-one ratio.
Terry Dinkins is the pastor of the Mansion Church on Center Street, the chaplain at the Penobscot County Jail and a branch manager for an armored car company. Dinkins has run a winter warming center out of his church since 2020 and named reducing homelessness his top priority, with cutting down on drugs and needles a close second. He’d like Bangor to focus on improving mental health care and drastically reducing the number of needles distributed in the city. Dinkins is unenrolled in a political party and has drawn criticism in local circles online for counter-protests his church has held at LGBTQ+ pride events in the past.
Joseph Pratt oversees the wealth management group at Bar Harbor Bank and Trust and serves on the boards of several nonprofits, including the Bangor Public Library. He said his top priority would be to restore civility and decorum to the council. Pratt, a Republican, also wants to expand the tax base to ease the burden on property owners. He’s opposed to harm reduction programs like syringe services and said at a candidate forum that those programs are “basically perpetuating drug abuse.”
Adam Baker, a retail worker and a member of Bangor’s Advisory Committee on Equity, Inclusion and Human Rights, is running on a platform of making Bangor more affordable. They want to grow the city’s affordable housing supply and implement rent control measures. Baker, a Democrat, also wants to bring back weekend service for the city’s bus system and said they’d support strategies like a sanctioned encampment, the housing first model and expanding the city’s public health department to address Bangor’s homelessness crisis.
Dawson Nevells, a political science student at the University of Maine and the youngest candidate this year, said he’d prioritize implementing regional solutions to the homelessness crisis. He wants to build a regional service center combining shelter and other supports that would be funded by a bond and operated by the city and neighboring communities. He also wants to impose a one-to-one restriction on needle exchange programs. Nevells, a Democrat, made an unsuccessful bid for Bangor School Committee two years ago.
Katherine Devine works as a nanny and has been involved in conservative political activism in the state since she was a kid, including advocacy for a statewide referendum that would’ve barred transgender students from sports teams aligned with their gender identities. Devine, a Republican and the second-youngest candidate at 21, named changing the city’s approach to drugs and homelessness as a top priority, saying she wants to stop giving handouts and abolish syringe service programs. She’d like to see Bangor focus instead on improving its mental health facilities.
Jennifer McGinley Maskala is the programs director for the Wild Blueberry Commission of Maine and wants the city to “spend less, do more” by reducing the budget and focusing on what she sees as the most fundamental city services, like repairing aging sewer systems and school facilities. She also wants the city to require syringe service programs to tag every needle they distribute and then fine a provider if someone litters a needle obtained from that location. McGinley Maskala declined to share her party affiliation, and she left the field blank in her campaign finance registration with the city.
John King is a member of the city’s ethics board. He’s retired from the military and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in business. If elected, he said he’d prioritize identifying duplications in the city’s budget to reduce spending, citing two homelessness-related positions in the public health department as a possible example. King is a Democrat and described himself as a moderate. He’s expressed some support for syringe exchange programs but also said he’d like to see more accountability measures for those programs.
Who’s running for School Committee?
Three candidates are running unopposed for three seats on the Bangor School Committee: Jamie Beck, Katie Brydon and Emily Tilton. You can read more about them here.
What else is on the ballot?
Bangor voters can also choose candidates for U.S. Senate, 2nd Congressional District representative, governor, the Maine Senate and the Maine House of Representatives.
Democrat Amy Roeder faces independent Steve Carey for Maine Senate, and there are two competitive state house races in Bangor: Republican Frank Casella versus incumbent Democrat Ambureen Rana in district 21, and Republican Brian Ames versus Democrat Victoria Kornfield in district 23.
Residents can also vote on a county-wide referendum about moving the Penobscot County Jail out of Bangor. All candidates for county-level positions are running unopposed.
You can view a sample ballot based on your address on the state’s voter information website and read more of the BDN’s statewide election coverage here.