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.
David Flood
Added Bonus: Former Mayor Joanne Twomey will be in attendance, rooting for Fecteau. Now, there’s a reason to vote for Flood!
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.
Ryan Fecteau
“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.
Some people can actually watch an entire baseball game without ever paying attention to the stats, the subtle nuances of play and the cryptic signals given between the dugout and field.
These people are normal and are not afflicted with severe attention deficit disorder. They are likely able to sustain a relationship, hold a job and do not live in their mother’s basement.
Others sit in the stands with calculators and steel-trap memories, comparing Freddie Lynn’s RBI stats to Nomar Garciaparra’s. These people actually know how a state caucus works. They can talk at length about the decline of the Whig Party, but generally struggle with finding a date on New Year’s Eve.
If you’re part of that first group and enjoy the experience of just eating a hotdog at Fenway. Stop reading here.
However, if you’re a true political junkie, or someone who has absolutely nothing better to do with your time, hang on!
Let’s start in Biddeford, where politics is full-on tackle.
Alan Casavant
In this corner, we have newly elected Mayor Alan Casavant, hoping to also hold onto his District 137 State House seat, which includes portions of Biddeford and Kennebunkport, for another two years.
And in the opposing corner, we have State Senator Nancy Sullivan, a fellow Democrat who is facing term limits and an end to her eight-year stint in the Senate. Sullivan held the 137 House seat for three terms (1998-2004), leaving only to run for the open senate seat when Lloyd LaFountain was forced out because of (here we go again)…term limits.
Traditionally, these seats are swapped off as incumbent House and Senate members politely trade their respective seats as an end-run around Maine’s pesky term limits legislation.
Nancy Sullivan
A few months ago, Casavant opted to take on incumbent Biddeford Mayor Joanne Twomey, a fellow Democrat who was a strong supporter of a proposed racino. Twomey, coincidentally, served four terms in the neighboring House District seat and then lost a primary bid for the Senate seat to, ….wait for it, ….Nancy Sullivan.
Casavant crushed Twomey’s hopes for a third term as mayor, earning 62 percent of the vote, despite huge voter support for the racio. Analysts attribute Casavant’s landslide win to the overall brilliance and tactical genius of his campaign manager.
But this is going to be a tough Democratic primary; and I think Republican strategists must either be in a self-induced coma brought on by the complacency of holding 20 of the Senate’s 35 seats or distracted by widespread media reports surronding allegations that a 47-year-old, double-amputee Somalian man from Lewiston donated $5 to Senator Peggy Rotundo’s “Clean Election” campaign while receiving foodstamps.
But back to House District 137.
As the incumbent, Casavant’s strengths will likely include the full-weight and awesome power of the Maine Democratic Party, the same group that nominated a gubernatorial candidate who got 19 percent of voter support last year and lost both chambers of the Legislature to Republicans….
Casavant will also be buoyed by the overwhelming support his mayoral bid garnered in Wards One and Three (the main portion of District 137). Wards One and Three include Biddeford’s more affluent neighborhoods (Biddeford Pool, Fortunes Rocks and Granite Point)
These are the same Biddeford neighborhoods, where Republicans feel brave enough to drive Subarus and Volvos without the requisite Obama 2012 bumper stickers but still register as Democrats to avoid having their homes torched.
The District also includes Kennebunkport, summer home of George HW Bush. Here, Republicans are much bolder and generally loathe the idea of driving a Subaru.
Sullivan’s support of a proposed racino will likely hurt her in District 137, but she is a very tough campaigner, ousting incumbent Republican Steve Joyce in 1998 while he was busy trimming his toenails and putting the final touches on legislation that would require all Francos in the District to register on a state web site.
Later, Sullivan fended off a primary challenge by Joanne (I’m crazier than you can possibly imagine) Twomey to earn the Democratic nomination for the State Senate. She then jousted with Donna (I’m thinking about running for president) Dion, a three-term mayor, who also touted a different casino proposal and ran as an independent.
Notice a pattern here? Sullivan can crush other women who like casinos. She can also whip pretty boys like Steve Joyce who did not know that Biddeford had a downtown area until he got lost there.
But now Sullivan is a woman who likes casinos, so she will likely tackle Casavant by pointing out that he now holds two political offices. Expect her to also make hay about his facial hair.
Casavant, meanwhile, will be buoyed by his 438,756,823 Facebook friends and his strategic maneuver of organizing a Biddeford winter carnival during winter.
It’s going to be a heck of a ride! Time to break out the Jiffy-Pop, boys and girls.
Next Week: Biddeford firefighters fan the flames of the Maine Senate’s dysfunction.
LESSONS IN MEDIOCRITY 