By Amanda Estes

Staff Writer

Election season is underway across the country as candidates and issue
advocates campaign for attention and votes ahead of the Nov. 6
contests, a little less than eight weeks away.

In South Portland, two at-large council seats, currently held by Linda
Boudreau and Ralph Baxter, will be contested. Four candidates returned
petitions with the required minimum of 100 signatures.

Boudreau will run again and will be joined in the race by Tom Blake, Don Legere, and Louis Maietta, Jr.

Paul Nixon and Valorie Swiger both took out petitions on Aug. 2,
however, neither had returned their papers by the Sept. 10 deadline.

Baxter, who earlier indicated he would not run, did not request a nomination petition.

Incumbent Boudreau has 15 years of experience on the council and has
served on the planning board and school board. She also occupied the
post of mayor three times.

Currently, she also serves as board chairman of ecomaine, the municipal owned waste management company.

Asked about her motivation for running again, Boudreau spoke of financial planning for the city’s future.

“I think the city is in a financial situation where we need to be very
much aware of what our long-term needs are and how in fact that fits
into financial planning for the city,” she said. “I think in some times
the city has had incredible growth for businesses and has had more
financial resources than we have now.”

Louis Maietta Jr. also has experience on the council, having held a
district 2 seat from 1999 to 2002. In 2002, Maietta served a two-year
term in the state legislature. Maietta said, “I’m ready to go back and
do what I started back then.”

In June 2006, Maietta ran an unsuccessful campaign – in a five-way
race, which Ralph Baxter won – to fill the unexpired term of at large
councilor Robert Fickett, who resigned earlier that year due to failing
health.

Maietta said he seeks, among other things, to benefit the city with his knowledge of the budget process.

Tom Blake and Don Legere do not have experience on the council, but both have made community involvement a priority.

For Blake, as a former city employee, this election cycle will be the
first time he has been eligible to run for city council. According to
the city charter, city employees are prohibited from running for public
office. Last February, Blake retired from the South Portland Fire
Department, after 27 years as a full-time firefighter and paramedic.
Currently, he is the captain of the Ferry Village Engine One Call
Company, a position he will have to give up if he wins a council seat.

A founding member and current president of the South Portland Land
Trust, chairman of the West End Trails Committee and member of the Long
Creek Revitalization Planning Committee, Blake is familiar with urban
environmental issues.

“I’m completely convinced that South Portland is an absolutely beautiful community,” he said.

Legere has served on various boards and committees including the school
board, TIF committees and both the Portland Regional Chamber of
Commerce and the South Portland Cape Elizabeth Chamber of Commerce.

While he has missed community involvement in his life, Legere said the
negativity surrounding former City Manager Ted Jankowski’s leadership
also factored into his motivation to run for the council this year.

“I think it’s a great city and I want to affect it in a positive way,”
he said. “It isn’t because I was mad at anything. The first city
manager was probably the result of a hiring process that didn’t work
out very well.”    

In Cape Elizabeth, two town council seats, currently held by Paul
McKenney and Mary Ann Lynch, are up for grabs. Both Lynch and McKenney
will seek reelection for another three-year term. Greg Altznauer will
seek to win a seat for the first time.

Altznauer has run for the council every year since moving to Maine three years ago.

“I’m running on some very basic points,” he said. “I want to protect Cape’s farms, open land and woodlands.”

Altznauer said if elected, he would advocate for the creation of an
inland wetland and watercourse committee to review site plans and
provide recommendations to the planning board.

He said maintaining a strong school system and implementing a
comprehensive plan that fits residents’ visions for a natural
environment are also among his priorities.

Lynch has six years of experience on the council and said her work on
the comprehensive plan committee factored into her decision to run
again.

“That’s at a point where the council is considering the final plan and
after the council adopts the final plan it will be implemented so I
want to see that process through,” she said. “I think the comprehensive
plan says in a lot of ways, let’s stay on the same track, let’s not do
things too differently.”

McKenney, the council’s current chairman, is seeking another three-year term after first being elected to the council in 2005.

“I feel that I have been able to constructively benefit the town of
Cape Elizabeth and we have a lot of initiatives moving forward that I
would like to see to completion,” he said.

McKenney said he continues to be focused on environmental protection
issues and providing adequate school and municipal budgets that allow
the town to maintain the level of services residents have come to
expect, while keeping tax increases reasonable.

This November, residents will also vote on school board candidates. In
Cape Elizabeth, two three-year terms, currently held by Patricia
Brigham and Rebecca Millet, and the remaining two years of an unexpired
term, currently held by Kevin Sweeney, will be contested. Sweeney
resigned from the board on Aug. 7 and will officially step down on
Sept. 30 due to health and personal reasons. 

Millet, John (Jack) Kennealy and Michael Foley will compete in a
three-way contest for the two three-year terms with the two top vote
getters winning office. Brigham is seeking election to the remainder of
Sweeney’s term.

In South Portland, elections for four school board seats will be on the
ballot, due in part to the resignations of William Harris and Mark
Reuscher, although none will be contested. Harris resigned from the
board on April 6, due to recurring health problems. Burt Edwards was
appointed to fill Harris’ seat until the election.

Reuscher submitted his letter of resignation to board chairman Richard
Carter on Aug. 8, citing his marriage to a school employee as a
conflict of interest according to state law.

Richard Carter, current chairman, is the only incumbent and will seek
reelection to his district 1 seat. Sara Goldberg will run for a
district 2 seat while Ralph Baxter Jr. and Karen Callaghan will run
unopposed to fill Reuscher and Harris’ unexpired terms.