My all-time favorite journalists (The Top 12)

February 11, 2026February 12, 2026 ~ Randy Seaver ~ Leave a comment

I am a journalist, and I love making lists.

So, it should come as no surprise that I woke up at 3:30 a.m. yesterday with the idea that I should make a Top 12 list of my favorite journalists – people who have inspired me, people I have worked with and even people I have worked for.

It was originally going to be a Top 10 list, but I could think of no-one on this list who should be eliminated as a finalist.

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12.) Marian McCue, The Forecaster

Marian McCue was inducted into the Maine Press Association (MPA) Hall of Fame in 2019

According to a story published in the Portland Press Herald, McCue purchased the former Falmouth Forecaster in 1990 at a time when it was published every two weeks and mailed to residents.

The MPA reportedly described McCue’s tenacious commitment to journalism as “great foresight and a singular journalistic duty, into what would become arguably ‘the’ community newspaper of record for the greater Portland area.”

I have long admired Marian’s work ethic and her commitment to the very best principles of true community journalism.

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11.) Liz Gotthelf, Saco Bay News

When it comes to community journalism, few do it better than my friend Liz Gotthelf, who launched Saco Bay News – a digital media outlet – in 2020, shortly after the daily Journal Tribune forever closed its doors.

A former Tribune reporter, Liz is dedicated to the community where she lives and works. She built Saco Bay News on nothing more than an idea and a desire to keep covering the communities of Biddeford, Saco and Old Orchard Beach.

Liz is a scrappy journalist with a HUGE heart. Her care and commitment to journalism shines through in everything she writes. Liz was knocked to the ground in August 2024 when her husband died suddenly and unexpectedly. She took just a few days off, and then – despite near overwhelming grief – jumped back in the saddle, covering community news and events. How do you spell integrity?

I am lucky to call Liz a friend, and I was proud to work with her for a little more than two years as one of her contributing writers.

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10.) Chris Busby, The Bollard

The Portland-based weekly The Bollard is one of my favorite newspapers. Busby is one of those people who has likely forgotten more about journalism than I will ever learn.

More than 20 years ago, Busby began building the Bollard with his own blood, sweat and tears. The paper reeks with journalistic integrity and offers a no-holds-barred approach to covering local and state government. The Bollard is also where I get my regular fix of Al Diamon’s Politics and Other Mistakes column and Liz Peavey’s weekly column.

The really good news? The Bollard is available online and its print version is available for free throughout southern Maine. I pickup the Bollard at the Hannaford grocery store in Biddeford.

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9.) Barbara Walters, ABC News

Barbara was a true journalism pioneer. She broke the proverbial glass ceiling that held back so many women in the news business, especially in the realm of televised newscasts.

Her legendary career, which started in 1951 at an NBC affiliate station in New York, earned her numerous accolades and awards, often described as one of the most trusted, and dogged reporters of the 20^th Century.

Of course, Walters is best known today for her time as a producer and reporter of NBC’s Today Show and then later becoming the first female co-anchor of a network evening news show with Harry Reasoner on the ABC Evening News.

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8.) David Flood, Mainely Newspapers

David and Carolyn Flood launched the weekly Biddeford-Saco-OOB Courier in 1989. They immersed themselves in the community and quickly became a fierce and reputable source of competition to their much larger, daily counterparts, the Journal Tribune and the Portland Press Herald.

Their hard work and commitment to community news paid off. The company expanded into a group of weekly newspapers that included the Scarborough Leader, South Portland Sentry and the Kennebunk Post among others.

David’s business model of not charging for subscriptions proved effective. But David cared more about Biddeford than just becoming the paper of record. He was the principal founder of the Heart of Biddeford.

He was always bullish about the city, especially its downtown area. After selling his publications, he was elected to the Biddeford City Council. Two years ago, he was inducted in the Biddeford Cultural and Heritage Center’s Hall of Fame. He also served briefly as president of the Biddeford-Saco Chamber of Commerce.

David hired me as a reporter in 1998. He then later promoted me to become the Courier’s editor and then later I became managing editor of all his publications.

I drove David nuts. I gave him plenty of reasons to fire me, but he didn’t. In fact, he gave me a rather long leash, and I think he valued my intense work ethic and my fierce sense of newspaper competition.

I often joke that the Biddeford Gazette is my baby. If that’s true then David and Carolyn Flood are the Gazette’s grandparents.

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7. Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe

I don’t know a lot about Jeff or his background, but I do love his weekly column, Arguable

It is well-written, often long-winded (a man after my own heart) but always informative, balanced and not afraid of controversy. As an opinion columnist, Jacoby admittedly leans a bit to the political right, which must make him wildly popular with the men and women who work in the Globe’s newsroom.

Don’t get me wrong. Jacoby may lean just a bit to the right, but his analysis is often scorching and always thought-provoking, but always fair and balanced.

I love Jacoby’s column, and that’s reason enough for him to be on this list.

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6.) Jack Beaudoin, Journal Tribune

If you ask people who have lived in Biddeford a long time about who they think was the city’s best reporter, Beaudoin’s name invariably rises to the top.

Jack, a Biddeford native, earned his reputation as an outstanding reporter. He was usually the smartest guy in the room but never acted like it. In fact, he is one of the most self-effacing people I have ever met.

Jack is also the former publisher of the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting. Today, he lives in Stonington and describes himself as an “ink-stained wretch.”

You can find his work today at jackbeaudoin.com

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5.) Kelley Bouchard, Portland Press Herald

I think it was 2001 when Kelley and I first met. She had been assigned to cover Biddeford back when the Press Herald had a bureau office on Main Street in Biddeford.

I am lucky to know Kelley as a friend, despite the fact that we were fierce competitors back in the day, when MERC was still burning garbage downtown and dinosaurs could be seen stumbling down Lincoln Street.

Kelley was tough as nails. She never accepted the proverbial talking point memos. She asked hard questions, but she was fair and thorough. Today, she still holds my feet to the fire, often questioning the motives of some of my political posts on social media. I really miss working alongside Kelley. Those days are some of my favorite memories.

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4.) Harry Foote, American Journal

If you’re a journalist over the age of 40 in Maine, it is more than likely that you once worked for Harry Foote, the late founder and publisher of the weekly American Journal, then based in Westbrook.

Harry — always grinning but unrelenting in his push for perfection and “real news,” — probably taught more journalists than the Columbia School of Journalism.

I learned so much from Harry. He was a legend and a force to be reckoned with, just ask former mayors and city councilors from Westbrook.

Harry died in 2012 at the age of 96. In 1990, he received the Maine Press Association’s Journalist of the Year award. In 1999, he was inducted into the Maine Press Association’s Hall of Fame.

I really miss Harry, the chaos of his newsroom, his collection of pencils and the apron he would wear around his waist. I’m one of the lucky ones. I got to work for Harry Foote.

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3.) Mike Wallace, CBS News/ 60 Minutes

It is a well-known fact that journalists in the United States are required by law to pay silent homage and tribute to Mike Wallace before writing or producing every news story.

Wallace is considered a deity by so many of his peers in the world of journalism. He was one of the original four members of the magazine-style television news program, 60 Minutes. He was the definition of investigative journalism. He was loathed by President Richard Nixon.

Why is he on this list? Because he is Mike Wallace, and I am legally required to describe him as one of the greatest journalists of all time.

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2.) Carl Bernstein, Washington Post

Although never as well-known or revered as his Watergate counterpart — Bob Woodward – Carl is a man after my own heart.

He never graduated from college, but he was a brilliant and remarkable reporter. It is rumored that he lied in order to get hired by the Washington Post when he was still in high school. His peers often described him as a manic and tenacious workaholic.

Many people believe that without Bernstein’s rabid and aggressive style of reporting, the Watergate scandal may have never been brought to light. I was 10 years old when Nixon became the first president to resign from office in August 1974. I was glued to the television coverage. It was then that I knew I wanted to be the next Bob Woodward or Carl Bernstein.

If you enjoy good books, check out Bernstein’s memoir, Chasing History: A Kid In The Newsroom.

Drum roll please . . .

And now —- my all-time favorite journalist:

Hunter S. Thompson, Rolling Stone

Quite simply, the late Hunter S. Thompson is my hero, my idol and all sorts of other things. He is the founder and creator of Gonzo-style journalism.

He broke all the rules of traditional journalism. A heavy drinker and smoker, he also experimented with drugs, including hallucinogens. He was a prominent leader of the counter-cultural movement that swept across America during the late 1960s and the early 1970s.

His landmark book — Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas — was well received and required reading for rebellious teenagers who wanted nothing more than to piss off their parents.

Hunter’s career started back in the days when people like Jack Kerouac and Alan Ginsberg were gaining traction in literary circles, creating what became the Beat Generation and a legion of self-described “beatniks” who desperately wanted to follow in their footsteps.

Thompson was simultaneously brilliant and self-destructive. He didn’t take criticism well, unless it was from someone he respected and also loathed like Truman Capote.

I really believe that I was born 30 years too late, I like to think that maybe Hunter and I would be friends. We both served in the U.S. Air Force.

Perhaps no writer influenced me more than Thompson. I tried to use a Gonzo-style approach when writing my weekly All Along the Watchtower column for the Courier.

If you want another great book recommendation, check out Outlaw Journalist: The Life and Times of Hunter S. Thompson by William McKeen.

And that’s a wrap.

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My sincere apologies to everyone on this list. I really do respect your work, and I do – unlike Chris Busby – care about how other journalists perceive my work.

I had a lot of fun writing this. I hope you enjoyed reading it.

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Randy Seaver is a hack journalist living in Biddeford. He is the editor and founder of the Biddeford Gazette, a non-profit digital news publication that focuses on the city of Biddeford.

Randy has been annoying other journalists and editors since 1981 when he did a brief stint as an unpaid student intern at the former Journal Tribune, a daily newspaper based in Biddeford.

He regularly writes about politics, journalism and his own struggles with mental illness at Lessons in Mediocrity | Outlaw Journalist

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Stop Making Sense: the birth and resurrection of a monster in Biddeford

October 8, 2024January 30, 2026 ~ Randy Seaver ~ 4 Comments

Over the just the past few days, two journalists have reached out to me in order to criticize some things I’ve said on social media.

Ted Cohen, a former and respected reporter from the Portland Press Herald, and Ed Pierce, now the editor of the weekly Windham Eagle, both think I need some guidance.

Cohen was sincere and well-meaning with his criticism. We’ve known each other for more than 25 years. He raised some valuable points for me to consider. Pierce, however, was much less than cordial. He really, really does not like me.

In fact, during our back-and-forth exchange – while we were both hurling insults and snarky comments at each other on Facebook — Pierce decided to bring out the big guns and tried to publicly shame me about something I did when I was 12 years old, an incident that was on the front page of the Journal Tribune in 1976. (You can read about that incident here).

Cohen just thinks I am wasting my time and frittering away my resources as an old-school reporter. He thinks I should just “shut-the-fuck up” on social media and go back to being a full-time journalist covering the city of Biddeford. He does not like my blog posts about my struggles with mental illness, a topic he says “nobody really cares about.”

During a camping trip last weekend, I gave a lot of thought to the criticisms raised by both Cohen and Pierce. Again, I admire and respect Cohen. Pierce? Not so much. But I realized both men provided a glimpse into the viewpoints of many other people, especially in the Biddeford-Saco area.

Although I generally get a lot of positive feedback from readers, there are some people who are annoyed by what I write. These folks think I suck at journalism. Many others are bent out of shape and hate the fact that I am an administrator of the Biddeford-Saco Community Facebook page.

If you think my ego is hyper-inflated, and if you think that I have too much influence in the city of Biddeford and elsewhere, don’t blame me.

Put the blame where the blame belongs.

Blame David Flood. It’s all his fault.

It was David Flood who set this unfortunate series of events into motion. He created the monster that some of you despise.

Let’s pause and back up a bit for context.

A bad seed is planted

It was October 1998. I was sitting in my parked car (a 1987 rusting Subaru) on Washington Street in Biddeford, not far from the former Wonderbar Restaurant.

My stomach was in knots, and I was just starting my second pack of cigarettes that day. I really wanted this job. I really needed this job.

My life at that time was a giant, hot mess. I was basically broke, living in a studio apartment in Westbrook and had a credit score somewhere near the 300 mark.

I was 34 years old and considered myself a complete failure. No close family connections. Few friends, and not even a bank account.

I was working for another weekly newspaper when I interviewed for the job at the Biddeford-Saco-OOB Courier, a weekly publication that was then owned by David and Carolyn Flood.

The job appealed to me to me for two reasons. First, it seemed more interesting than the job I had covering the towns of Windham and Standish. I had grown up in the Biddeford-Saco area. My family had deep roots in both communities.

Secondly, the Courier position would pay roughly 50 cents an hour more than my current gig. That’s a difference of about $20 per week. When you’re flat broke, an extra $20 per week sounds really good.

I think David was impressed by my enthusiasm and the fact that I had experience. But I think what clinched the deal was that he recognized the value of hiring a reporter who had a basic understanding of the community he would be covering.

We shook hands, and I was set to start in two weeks so that I could give my current employer notice.

That was it. That was the moment when my entire life changed.

If not for David’s decision to hire me, I would not have met Laura who had decided several years ago to run for a seat on the Old Orchard Beach School Board. I would not have had the opportunity to help raise my kids, Tim and Matt.

If not for that job as a reporter covering Biddeford and Saco, it is quite likely that you would have never heard my name. More than 99 percent of the people I interact with on social media only know me because David Flood hired me as a reporter.

If not for David Flood’s decision, I would have never been hired a few years later by Barton & Gingold, one of Maine’s most respected political and public relations consulting firms. I would have never bought a house in Biddeford.

Had David Flood not hired me, it is more than likely that you and I would not know each other. So, if you find me insufferable or just plain annoying, blame David Flood. It’s all his fault.

Jumping in feet first

Just a few days before Halloween 1998, I hit the streets as the newest reporter covering Biddeford and Saco. Other than a couple of family members, I basically knew no one in the area.

The few friends I had at that time all lived near Portland. I grabbed a reporter’s notebook, a pen and an old camera on my quest to find a news story. I walked less than 20-feet when I bumped into a man wearing the costume of a deranged chef. He was holding a rubber chicken and a meat cleaver.

It was a Friday afternoon, and downtown merchants were participating in a Halloween trick-or-treat event. I asked the man with the rubber chicken if I could take his picture for the newspaper.

That man’s name was Brian Keely, the son of Vincent Keely who owned the Wonderbar Restaurant on the other side of Washington Street. Five years later, Brian Keely was the best man at my wedding.

Brian’s father sort of adopted me. Vincent always had a sly grin and had a mannerism that was both charming and subdued. Because the Wonderbar was near City Hall, it was a popular place for city councilors and other politicians to hang out after long, tedious meetings.

I spent a lot of time at the Wonderbar. Vincent Keely pointed me to some great stories. He knew almost everyone. He seemed to like me. Brian and I became good friends.

Back then, there was always a lot of drama at City Hall. The stories were easy to come by, but the competition was stiff. Every meeting was also attended by a reporter from both the Portland Press Herald and the Journal Tribune.

I was trying to establish myself and pushing to make the weekly Courier the paper of record in Biddeford and Saco.

I worked my ass off. We gave the Journal and Press Herald a run for their money. A few months later, David gave me the first of several pay raises. It was February 1999, and I received a notice from Northern Utilities that my heat was going to be turned off.

Without me asking them, David and Carolyn paid my overdue heating bill. They never asked for repayment. You never forget things like that. I was battling with some severe depression back then. David and Carolyn basically saved my life.

It was there and then that I decided I would treat the Courier as if I were its owner. I didn’t work 40 hours a week. I worked, 60, 80 hours a week. Sometimes more. It didn’t matter. The Courier was not my job.

The Courier was my life.

The beginning of the end

Eventually, I became the Courier’s editor. David and Carolyn were kept busy as their company grew by leaps and bounds. They soon added the South Portland Sentry and the Kennebunk Post to their existing publications, which included the Courier and the Scarborough Leader.

It was at about this time that I approached David and asked permission to begin a weekly opinion column, which would focus on statewide politics. He agreed. The name of that column was called All Along The Watchtower.

To this very day, people routinely tell me how much they loved that column, which had morphed into a catch-all of snarky local political commentary.

Doug Sanford offered me an apartment on the third floor above the Happy Dragon restaurant on Main Street in Biddeford. I now lived and worked on Main Street. I was immersed into Biddeford’s culture.

I became a fixture at City Hall and regularly annoyed local politicians including former mayor and city councilor Jim Grattelo, who repeatedly asked David to fire me.

Brian Keely and I started a live call-in television program on the public access channel. The name of the show, of course, was called Along the Watchtower, and it was a live, no-holds barred hour-long program about local politics.

I could keep going and going, but that’s basically it. That’s how it started. The staff at the Journal Tribune didn’t much care for me. Their days were numbered, and they knew it. Reporters at the Press Herald’s Biddeford bureau respected my work ethic but kept their distance.

David promoted me to become managing editor of all his publications.

I left the newspaper business in 2006 to pursue a career in political consulting. A few years later, in 2011, former Biddeford city councilor Alan Casavant asked me to be his campaign manager. He wanted to oust incumbent mayor Joanne Twomey.

We won that campaign by a margin of more than 65 percent. I repeated my role in Casavant’s re-election in 2013; and I helped with his next four campaigns.

*Serving as master of ceremonies at Alan Casavant’s inauguration in 2011*

In 2001, a woman named Laura Kidman Hayes sent me a curt e-mail, pointing out that I screwed up in my coverage of the pending election in Old Orchard Beach. I responded with a pithy and sarcastic retort.

She lost that election, and we were married less than two years later. The next year, we bought our home in Biddeford. A few years later, she won a seat as an at-large representative on the Biddeford City Council. She easily won reelection for a second term.

I missed writing about Biddeford politics and started this blog. A couple of years ago, I agreed to do some freelance writing for Saco Bay News. I had to step away from writing about Biddeford news a few months ago, however, because of a conflict of interest. I also can no longer write about Saco politics because my stepsister is now that city’s mayor.

So today, I continue to run my own, very small consulting business and write this blog and occasionally write puff pieces and feature stories for Saco Bay News.

A moment of clarity

Let’s get something straight right now. I no longer consider myself to be a professional journalist. I share personal opinions and observations on social media. I am basically a semi-retired consultant. That’s it.

You should also know that I am not very bright as I outlined in a prior blog post from two years ago.

I do enjoy public feedback — the good, the bad and the ugly. You can find samples of that criticism on this site. Maybe your criticisms can someday make that list.

To Mr. Cohen, I say, thanks, but no thanks. I’d rather be a free-wheeling blogger than a full-time journalist.

To Mr. Pierce, I would say . . . dude, you have a serious anger management problem, and you should really get some professional help.

To Jim Grattelo, I would say: remember what Obi-Wan Kenobi said to Darth Vader, if you strike me down, I will only become more powerful.

To the rest of you, thank you so much for taking the time to read my stuff. It means the world to me. To think that you give up even a few minutes of your day to engage with me is almost beyond my comprehension.

Finally, to David and Carolyn Flood, you guys not only saved my life, but you gave it meaning. I know I that I often drove you guys nuts, but please never doubt how grateful I will always be.

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A Hard Day’s Night

February 13, 2024February 17, 2025 ~ Randy Seaver ~ Leave a comment

No one can deny that the city of Biddeford – once derided as “Trash-town U.S.A.” — has today become an unlikely hip destination for young adults and others who enjoy an eclectic array of craft breweries, a diverse culinary scene and dozens of boutique shops and businesses that offer everything from gourmet cheeses to hand-crafted outdoor gear.

In fact, several national publications that cater to the promotion of unique culinary delights and a creative economy all point to the city of Biddeford as a place to be for young, urban professionals.

A photo from the Heart of Biddeford website

Not surprisingly, the city of Biddeford is today Maine’s youngest city, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

What a change 23 years make, but that change wasn’t easy — and it does come with some equally undeniable consequences.

More about that in a moment. First, a bit of disclosure.

Over the past few weeks, I have been sorting through hundreds of stories I have written about Biddeford since the mid-1990s as part of the redesign and launch of this website, Lessons in Mediocrity.

From 1998 until 2002, before I met my wife, I lived in downtown Biddeford; on the third-floor above the Happy Dragon Restaurant on Main Street.

I also grew up in the Biddeford-Saco area. My family goes back four generations in this community. My wife, a former Biddeford city councilor, and I have been living at our home on Lamothe Avenue for just over 20 years.

After my time at the Courier, I continued to write/blog about the city, its politics and people. As a policy consultant, I worked on several local campaigns and issues. My kids went to Biddeford schools.

I also served on the Biddeford Airport Commission, the Downtown Development Commission and the Biddeford Zoning Board of Appeals.

Today, I keep my toes in the water by working as a free-lance writer, still writing about Biddeford for Saco Bay News.

You get the point. I have a close connection to Biddeford, a community I love and care about deeply.

Why am I sharing this now?

When we look at the city of Biddeford today, I think many of us tend to forget the challenges the city was facing then, when we literally burned our trash in the middle of downtown.

When I joined the Courier in 1998, my boss and publisher David Flood was already an ardent and outspoken booster for downtown Biddeford.

David – unlike me and several other people – saw big potential in Biddeford’s downtown, despite some overwhelming challenges that included the presence of a downtown trash incinerator and significant socio-economic hurdles.

In fact, David – who was recently inducted into the Biddeford Hall of Fame — was one of the original founders of the Heart of Biddeford, a non-profit organization established in 2004 with a mission to promote economic development and improve quality of life in the city’s downtown area.

While former mayor Alan Casavant receives a lot of credit for the revitalization and renaissance of downtown Biddeford. It was actually former mayor Wallace Nutting who got the ball rolling, some seven years before Casavant was elected as mayor.

Nutting a retired four-star general and native of Saco, also had a strong vision of what downtown Biddeford could become.

Although Nutting, a former Pentagon official who served as a senior advisor to President Ronald Reagan, was one of the smartest, most distinguished and accomplished people I ever met, I thought he was off his proverbial rocker when he started talking about the city’s beleaguered downtown as a “destination for arts, culture and local shopping.”

But Nutting and Flood were not alone. The former mayor also tapped several other like-minded citizens to join him on his newest crusade. Ed Caron, a Biddeford attorney; Renee (Potvin) O’Neil, the woman who basically spearheaded the renovation of City Theater, and Donna Tippett all volunteered to help.

Nutting, the man who previously led the U.S. effort to extricate Manuel Noreiga out of Panama, had a new mission.

Failure was not an option.

What this core group – and later several other volunteers, business owners and residents – accomplished was nothing short of amazing.

But hindsight is always 20/20. It took years, taxpayer funding and political willpower to transform downtown from a neglected hodgepodge of businesses to one of the most vibrant cities in Maine.

Now back to those unintended consequences.

Biddeford After Dark

In the autumn of 2001, while working for David and Carolyn Flood, I decided to write a five part-series about downtown Biddeford, but with a twist.

My Biddeford After Dark series would explore the city’s then gritty downtown area during the overnight hours.

I would write about the punks who congregated at the 7-11 store near the intersection of Jefferson and Alfred Streets; I would ride along with third-shift Biddeford police officers and I would interview the late-night workers, including the supervisors at the MERC incinerator.

I don’t think David was crazy about my idea. I think he was concerned that my series would only perpetuate negative stereotypes about the city of Biddeford.

But – as was so often the case – David game me a wide berth and lots of latitude in running the newsroom.

At that time, I was living and working in downtown Biddeford. I didn’t write the series for overtime pay or to avoid my daytime responsibilities as the Courier’s editor. I was single. I lived alone. I did it for fun.

An excerpt from that series: “As I walk along Lincoln Street — past a tired wrought-iron fence that is leaning and lurching in places — I can almost hear the ghosts of the past. They call to each other, unloading bales of cotton, smoking cigarettes and wiping the sweat from their brows.”

Back then, the former Lincoln Mill clocktower was perched and rotting on the ground in front of the vacant and deteriorating mill building that is today – 23 years later– a luxury hotel with a roof-top swimming pool, a craft distillery and an expansive lobby that has become a favorite gathering place for locals and visitors alike.

Who would have imagined?

But here’s the other thing, the downside of the good news.

*A photo I took of the former Lincoln Mill clocktower nearly 25 years ago.*

In 2001, it wasn’t hard to find a parking spot in downtown Biddeford. In 2001, you didn’t see any homeless folks sleeping in doorways on Main Street. In 2001, rents – both commercial and residential – were among the lowest in southern Maine.

Why? Well, it’s pretty simple: very few people really wanted to live or shop in downtown Biddeford back then. The stench of burning garbage; shuttered and vacant mill buildings and crumbling infrastructure hardly gave off a welcoming vibe.

Sure, there were some notable exceptions. Legacy businesses such as Reilly’s Bakery and Biddeford Savings Bank were able to weather the storm created by an economic recession and the terrible decision to burn garbage downtown.

But many people had given up on the downtown. Politicians set their sights on easy targets: the development of Wal-Mart and other big-box stores on the outer end of Alfred Road, a proposed racino and continued suburban sprawl on the western side of the city.

As I go through the stories and columns I wrote back then, I am reminded of the tremendous debt we all owe to David Flood, Wallace Nutting, Renee O’Neil and so many others.

We should also never forget the business leaders, civic activists and policy makers who formed Twin Cities Renaissance, the coalition of visionaries from both sides of the Saco River who committed themselves to seeing MERC finally closed.

Sure, Alan Casavant deserves lots of credit for helping us believe in our city again, but he got a lot of help from people who believed in Biddeford even when many of us had given up on the city.

Thank you for your blood, sweat and tears.

In the movie Jaws, Mayor Larry Vaughan says he was just “acting in the town’s best interests” by keeping the beaches open.

In Biddeford, Mayor Wallace Nutting was acting in the town’s best interest by believing in his city and its people.

Make no mistake. Our city still has challenges and hurdles to clear. But if you look at what has been accomplished over the last two decades, Biddeford’s future seems bright.

Originally published in Saco Bay News

Two for the show

May 22, 2014June 17, 2015 ~ Randy Seaver ~ Leave a comment

Of the 151 seats in the Maine House of Representatives, only 19 of them will offer a primary option for voters on June 10.

One of those 19 Primary Election challenges is taking place right here in Biddeford, and I know both of the Democrats who are battling for their party’s favor.

Of course, since this is Biddeford, a city that consistently sends a Democrat to Augusta, at least in this central district, whichever candidate wins on June 10 will most likely be able to coast comfortably onward to Freshman Orientation Day at the Statehouse.

This evening (May 22) Ryan Fecteau and David Flood will participate in a televised debate that will be held in the Little Theater at Biddeford High School.

I will be live Tweeting from the event, but I encourage my fellow voters in Biddeford to attend and learn more about the candidates.

Expect Fecteau to lean toward progressive themes and talk about youth and new energy. Expect Flood to talk about his succesful business experience and moderate views.

Fecteau has been running a visible and strong ground game. It’s not yet clear where Flood’s campaign has been over the past few weeks.

Added Bonus: Former Mayor Joanne Twomey will be in attendance, rooting for Fecteau. Now, there’s a reason to vote for Flood!

The (not so) usual suspects

December 26, 2013January 26, 2024 ~ Randy Seaver ~ 2 Comments

Another Biddeford politician has thrown his hat into the ring to replace State Rep. Paulette Beaudoin in the Maine Legislature.

While some observers were thinking that newcomer Ryan Fecteau has all but clinched the June 2014 Democratic primary for the District 11 seat, it looks like voters could have several choices.

Former Biddeford city councilor and one-time mayoral candidate David Flood announced this week that he also will be running for Beaudoin’s seat, and he’s already received her endorsement.

Flood is best known in the city as the founder and publisher of the Biddeford-Saco-OOB Courier and five other weekly newspapers that he and his wife sold in 2007, only months before he won an at-large seat on the city council. In 2009, Flood lost his bid to oust Mayor Joanne Twomey, but two years later voters returned him to the city council.

Flood and Fecteau both have some advantages and challenges.

Fecteau, 21, is certainly eager and appears to have built a decent foundation for his campaign. In an unprecedented move, he publicly announced his candidacy last year.

Previously, Fecteau served on the city’s Charter Review Commission and as chair of the city’s Democratic Committee. He has already set up a web site, social media pages and did what no other state representative candidate from Biddeford has done before: he coordinated a fundraiser and campaign event for himself in Washington, D.C., where he is a student at Catholic University of America.

Fecteau posted some photos from that Washington D.C. event and sent press releases to local newspapers. The photos show a bright-eyed kid with big dreams, holding a microphone and rallying a group of his peers who would be hard-pressed to find Biddeford on a map, never mind being able to vote for him.

Flood, 58, said he believes his experience as a successful business owner, entrepreneur and father makes him a strong candidate who understands the challenges of a struggling state economy and the real-life, day-to-day issues that impact voters. “This is an important time in our state’s history,” Flood said. “We need someone who knows what it’s like to pay taxes, to meet a payroll, to raise a family and deal with the complexities of life.”

Flood also has Paulette Beaudoin’s endorsement, saying she called him and asked if he would consider running for the seat she now holds.

Flood is the founder of the Heart of Biddeford, a non-profit group that is working to revitalize the city’s downtown area. He also owns commercial properties on Main Street, including a previously empty building that he co-purchased and developed with Biddeford architect Caleb Johnson. Today, 265 Main Street houses Elements Cafe and other tenants, including Engine, a non-profit arts center. Earlier this year, he launched a new magazine, Innovation Maine.

“I think of myself as a newspaper guy,” Flood said. “Carolyn and I opened the Biddeford-Saco-OOB Courier on July 13, 1989. I had just turned 34, and our two sons were eight and five years old. We know what it’s like to start a business and work as hard as you can to make it work.”

By the time the Floods sold the company, it had increased to six newspapers with 28 full-time and a dozen part-time employees.

“I do not want local governments to have to raise property taxes because the state isn’t doing its job,” Flood said. “This is an exciting time in Biddeford’s history – this is a way I can help.”

But Flood does have some challenges. Only weeks after winning his last election, he abruptly announced that he would be resigning his seat from the city council to return to the newspaper business. “It would have been a huge conflict of interest if I remained on the council,” he explained in 2011. “That opportunity came along right after the election, it’s not something I planned to do while campaigning.”

Flood’s return to the newspaper business was also short-lived, and he said he has no problems talking about that turn of events with voters.

Other Democrats who may be considering the seat include former Biddeford Mayor Joanne Twomey, who lost her primary challenge against Beaudoin two years ago; former city councilor Roch Angers and (because the district’s boundaries have changed) former State Sen. Nancy Sullivan.

Republican Perry Aberle is also considering another run for the seat. Aberle was trounced in his first bid for the seat by Beaudoin in 2012. A year later, in November, Aberle finished a distant third in a three-way race to be Biddeford’s next mayor.

District 11 was formerly known as District 135. Beaudoin held the seat for eight years and is being forced out because of term limits.

David, we hardly knew ye

February 16, 2012January 26, 2024 ~ Randy Seaver ~ 1 Comment

More breaking news… Biddeford’s own media mogul, David Flood, intends to resign his Ward 7 seat on the Biddeford City Council.

In 2007, Flood sold the Biddeford-Saco-OOB Courier and several other weekly newspapers that he and his wife published as part of the Mainely Newspapers Group to the parent company of the Journal Tribune.

Today it looks like he can’t wait to get back into the newsapaper game.

According to a story in the American Journal, Flood will take over as publisher of the Sun Chronicle and other York County publications owned by Current Publishing, a former competitor of Mainely Newspapers, Inc.

Only weeks after selling his newspaper in 2007, Flood jumped into Biddeford politics, winning an at-large seat on the city council, before making a failed attempt to oust Mayor Joanne Twomey in 2009.

Flood returned to the council in November, but now will be resigning after serving fewer than 90 days in office.

We have also learned that the Biddeford Courier will soon be looking for a new home.

Flood owns the 180 Main Street building where the Courier is now published. Apparently, he plans to use the same building to house his newest endeavor with Current Publishing.

Flood is reportedly planning to publicly announce his resignation from the council on Tuesday, during the council’s next regular meeting.

It remains unclear whether there will need to be a special election to fill Flood’s vacancy or whether Mayor Alan Casavant will be able to appoint a replacement.

Since there is far more than a year remaining in Flood’s term, it is likely that the council will call for a special election.

Should I stay or should I go?

February 8, 2012February 8, 2026 ~ Randy Seaver ~ Leave a comment

If Elmer Fudd had attended Tuesday’s Biddeford City Council meeting, he may have made the following observation about our city councilors:

“Those wascly wabbits seemed especially wambunctious last night.”

Fudd’s assessment matches my own observations.

Watching the councilors in action, I actually began to wonder whether a couple of our council critters had skipped their required rabies vaccinations, especially when they began talking about a favorite City Hall subject: solid waste disposal.

If you missed the meeting, then you also missed a rare opportunity to hear one of the city’s most eloquent and handsome residents address the council about the contentious issues surrounding trash and recycling.

No, Jim Grattelo did not show up last night.

It was me — yours truly — the voice of logic, reason and nicotine addiction from Ward Seven.

At issue is the perennial topic of how to both increase the city’s recycling rate and reduce the amount of trash we send to the Maine Energy Recovery Company, where household waste is recycled into electricity.

Council President Rick Laverierre seemed ready to explode or at least pop a button on his new suit, when he railed against the concept of a pay-per-bag trash collection system.

“This is not a Maine Energy thing,” he said, ignoring the obvious and hoping to avoid taking a public stance on a very controversial issue.

Laverierre strongly supports sending no less than two referendums to the city’s voters.

The first referendum would ask voter permission to even allow the council to discuss or say the words “pay-per-bag,” and the second referendum (a few months later) would ask the voters whether they approve a plan. Seriously.

For the first time in 192 years, I found myself in agreement with Councilors David Flood and Richard Rhames.

The last time the three of us agreed on a topic was in 1820, when we published a joint op-ed in the Boston Globe, making the case for Maine’s secession from the state of Massachusetts.

The opening line of that editorial proves the piece was a collaborative effort:

“For whatever. Massachusetts blows. We need another state where Democrats can control the Legislature.”

Back to last night’s meeting. Rhames, for a brief moment in time, seemed lucid with a firm grasp of the obvious.

Rhames reminded his fellow councilors that they will soon be forced to review the city’s waste disposal contract.

“This council needs to be grappling with this issue,” he said. “This matter is roaring up on us. It is not a simple issue and, unfortunately, we have not yet begun to consider our position.”

But Councilor Michael Swanton expressed doubts about how much the city would save its taxpayers by forcing the Solid Waste Commission to devise a plan that could increase the city’s recycling rate. “I ran the numbers at home,” he said. “And I figured out that I would save about 37 cents per week by recycling more.”

The council, however, did seem to agree on one thing: trash disposal involves a lot of fluctuating numbers, a good pair of rubber gloves and the willingness not to hoard No.2 plastic bottles.

Ultimately, the council voted 8-1 (Laverierre opposed) to kick the can down the road for another few weeks by sending a resolution to the Solid Waste Commission that seeks to increase the city’s recycling rate.

Take the money and run

Earlier in the evening, the council took up the issue of ethics, pondering whether to amend the city’s ordinances to require members of the Planning Board to sign a code of ethics.

It should be noted that members of the city council are not required to sign a code of ethics.

As I have explained to my children, whether you should take a 10-dollar bill from your mother’s purse is NOT an ethical dilemma.

It is a crime.

An ethical dilemma is a situation in which both choices have merit and must be carefully weighed against one’s own values and belief system.

At first blush, it seems more than reasonable to ask city officials to sign a code of ethics. But a closer examination of the proposed language reveals some glaring problems that leap off the pages and then steal money from your mother’s purse.

For example, Councilor David Flood (my neighbor, former employer and BFF) pointed out that by signing the code, planning board members would be required to only do reasonable things that also “appear to be reasonable.” Again, I’m not kidding.

If this same standard were applied to the city council, we would not have a city council.

Upon realization of this quandary, the council pondered their own ethical dilemma and rejected adopting a code of ethics for other people to follow.

Smart move.

In other business, the council put the brakes on a proposed policy that would allow the city to accept private contributions for public infrastructure.

After hearing further words of wisdom from yours truly about the slippery slope of unintended consequences, the council decided to send the proposed policy to the “Policy” Committee for further review and clarification.

If you would like to have Randy Seaver speak to your civic club, organization or rehab group, please send an e-mail to randy@randyseaver.com

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Street fighting man

February 2, 2012February 27, 2025 ~ Randy Seaver ~ 2 Comments

Some guys will do just about anything for attention. Such is the case with Biddeford City Councilor David Flood, the representative from Ward Seven who has returned to the council after a two-year sabbatical studying gymnastics.

City Councilor David Flood will go to any lengths to get people’s attention; best evidenced by his recent pledge to stand on his head until his fellow councilors agree to some sort of new solid waste collection program. (Photo by Dana Johnson)

Those who follow local politics closely may remember that Flood made a run against Joanne Twomey for the mayor’s seat two years ago.

Flood’s mayoral race did not go so well, so he went back to the drawing board and began drafting the core elements of his “Plan B” to rule Biddeford: A stealth plan to quietly buy every single building on Main Street not already owned by Doug Sanford.

I probably know Flood better than I know most of the other councilors, and I don’t know him that well.

David and his wife, Carolyn, owned and operated Mainely Newspapers, Inc., the former parent company of the Biddeford-Saco-OOB Courier and several other weekly newspapers.

In all likelihood, you would not be reading this if not for David Flood, who made the tragic mistake of hiring me in 1998 and then naming me as the Courier’s editor in 1999.

So if you hate me or the stuff I write, go ahead and kick David. It’s not my fault.

If not for David Flood, I would not have the job I have today. I would not be married to Laura, and I would not live in the house where I am writing this. All of those things came about through the connections I made while working at the Courier.

David is not just my city councilor, he’s also my neighbor. You’ve probably seen postcards of his May Street home, which is often mistaken for the U.S. Embassy building in the Dominican Republic.

During my seven-year tenure at the Courier, Flood missed several key opportunities to fire me. Let’s put it this way, I often pushed the envelope of employee-employer relationship protocols as far as they could be pushed.

I think there are only two reasons that David didn’t fire me as frequently requested by folks such as then State Rep. Joanne Twomey, former Mayor Jim Grattelo and a slew of others who all shared a common hatred of yours truly:

1.) I worked almost as hard as David Flood, the hardest-working man I have ever met; and

2.) We both loved the Courier and its mission to be the best local newspaper possible.

David has been involved in re-energizing downtown Biddeford for a long time, way before it was fashionable, hip or cool to promote the city’s downtown.

But here’s some trivia you may not know about David Flood:

He was a standout wrestler in high school and once challenged me to a wrestling match, boasting that he could pin me in less than a minute. (True story, and I declined the challenge because he had a weird look in his eyes when he said it.
He really likes turtles (also true)
He actually thought Joe Biden would be a good president (Delaware boys stick together)
He loves baseball almost as much as he loves newspapers.

David is also on Facebook. So let’s see what we can find there, eh?

He has 229 Facebook friends, roughly .01% as many “friends” as Mayor Alan Casavant .(Who says social media doesn’t work?)

One of his favorite TV shows? Family Guy

His only interest/pastime? Guinness…okay, he’s Irish.

Of the other eight city councilors, only Brad “Cub Scout” Cote is listed as a “friend” on Flood’s Facebook page (as of today)

So, here’s the tricky part: What should his Delta Chi name be?

After much thought and consideration, not to mention input from the All Along the Watchtower staff…..

David, your Delta Chi name is “Armadillo”

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Take the money and run

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