LEWISTON- Municipal elections were held in Lewiston on November 4th, which was the first time the city elects only half of its officers due to the staggered term schedule approved in 2021.
Offices up for election in Lewiston were four City Council seats and four School Committee seats. Even-numbered wards voted for two School Committee seats, and odd-numbered wards voted for one Council seat and one School Committee seat.
Overall voter turnout city-wide was 38%, which likely would have been lower had two well-advertised ballot initiatives not also been up for votes.
City Council
In the Ward One City Council race, incumbent Joshua Nagine ran unopposed and secured a second term.
In Ward Three, incumbent Scott Harriman defeated challenger Charles Soule with 72% of the vote.
In Ward Five, incumbent Eryn Soule lost her seat to current Ward Five School Committee member Iman Osman. Osman won with 53% of the vote.
Osman will have to vacate his seat on the School Committee, and a replacement will likely be nominated by Mayor Carl Sheline then confirmed by the City Council in January.
In Ward Seven, newcomers Bret Martel and David Projansky faced off for an open seat. Martel proved victorious, winning with 62% of the vote.
School Committee
For the Ward Two School Committee race, incumbent Janet Beaudoin held her seat against challenger Melanie Gould. Beaudoin won with 61% of the vote.
In Ward Four, newcomer Julia Harper faced off against former City Councilor Rick Lachapelle for an open seat. Harper won with 61% of the vote.
In Ward Six, incumbent Meghan Hird faced challenger Benjamin Daley. Hird won the race, earning 63% of the vote.
For the At-Large seat, which is city-wide, former City Councilor and School Committee member Luke Jensen faced off against newcomer Marcel Leclair. Also on the ballot was Angela Burke, who withdrew from the race but after the deadline to remove her name (no votes for her were counted). Jensen won the race with 55% of the vote.
Ballot Questions
Lewiston voters rejected Question One with 63% of the vote. This question would have required an official ID to vote at the polls, and would have drastically reduced the ability for Mainers to vote absentee. Maine voters ultimately voted against the proposal.
City Voters approved a new “red flag law” with 68% of the vote. This proposal was made largely as a response to the mass shooting in the city in October of 2023. Maine voters approved the proposal, which will now become law.
ANALYSIS
Although city elections are officially nonpartisan and candidates’ political parties are not shown on the ballot, there is always involvement by city and/or county party committees.
Often, races come down to one Democrat versus one Republican. This was true of all seven contested races in Lewiston this year.
All-in-all, Democrats successfully defended two Council seats and picked up one. They also gained two seats on the School Committee.
Republicans successfully defended one Council seat and two School Committee seats, but also lost a Council seat and a School Committee seat.
The current Council is made up of four Democrats, two Republicans, and one Independent. When the new councilors are sworn in this January, the Council will consist of five Democrats, one Republican, and one Independent.
City Councilors don’t often vote along party lines, though. For example, Council President David Chittim is the lone Independent member. Democratic Councilor Susan Longchamps has sided with her Republican colleagues on most votes related to the newly-approved syringe service program ordinance. Also, there is almost no discretionary funding in the city budget, and all councilors usually have no choice but to be fiscally conservative when working on it.
The current School Committee consists of four Democrats, four Republicans, and one Independent. The new committee will likely have six Democrats and three Republicans (the Mayor, a Democrat, will likely choose to appoint another Democrat to replace Osman in the Ward Five seat).
Like the Council, the members of the School Committee don’t often vote exclusively along party lines. There have been some occasions, however, where big votes have gone that way. The four current Republicans notably walked out of a meeting in early 2024 as a protest against the process used to elect the committee chairperson.
Local elections don’t receive the coverage they used to. One result is that candidates focus more on getting their name out than they do promoting their stances and ideas. This makes it hard to predict exactly how winning candidates will vote on significant issues. It also makes it hard to predict which direction elected bodies will head in.
Politics are just different at the local level, and party affiliation doesn’t always indicate how an elected official may vote.
National issues do sometimes show up in both of Lewiston’s elected bodies, but local issues are dominant and the agreements aren’t often along party lines. Expect many split votes ahead on both the Council and the School Committee.
Another thing to note is that next year’s city elections (which will include Mayor) will take place at the same time as the races for Governor, US Senate, Congress, and all legislative and county races. Although those races will be partisan, the city ballots will continue to not show party affiliation of candidates for Mayor, City Council, and School Committee.
Given that the local party committees are usually involved in off-year city races, it seems likely that there will be involvement next year when there is already a flurry of partisan activity going on. It remains to be seen whether the local office races will be drowned out by the state and federal races. This is new electoral territory for Lewiston, and political observers will only be able to speculate until an analysis can be done a year from now.
One could logically conclude that a favorable Election Night 2025 for Democrats along the east coast extended into Lewiston. Democrats in the city gained three seats while Republicans lost two. Even in nonpartisan city races, partisan trends played out.
***Disclaimer: One of the candidates, Luke Jensen, is owner and editor of Millbrick