Friends,

We are working hard on the Bangor races, which are arguably the most important in the state. As I’m sure you know, for the Bangor City Council there are 3 open seats, with 9 candidates this year. A lot of strange play can happen with so many candidates and 3 seats. Last year, during a presidential election, 6,027 votes got people on the council, and there were 22,414 votes left blank! This year there will be a much lighter turnout. In light of these dynamics, we are strongly encouraging a bloc vote. In my view, we have:

Three good candidates: Angela Walker, Susan Faloon and Daniel Carson. All of them filled out our questionnaire showing they support our values, and they have been endorsed by FAM and the Eastern Maine Labor Council.

• Daniel Carson is on FAM’s board and is all about the movement and building worker power. He does well with process and committees—something sorely needed in Bangor.
• Angela Walker is Indigenous, with a strong commitment to her recovery and sharing recovery with others; she currently works at the BARN.
• Susan Faloon is a solid progressive who supports workers, marginalized people, and justice-based solutions to our issues.

Three not-so-good candidates: Richard Ward, Colleen O’Neal and Justin Cartier range from a conspiracy theorist, to someone who proudly uses neo-Nazi rhetoric, to someone who is very anti-homeless. Colleen and Justin will likely get significant votes with name recognition, as they were Republican representative candidates in the last election.

Three mixed candidates: Steven Ferren, Reese Perkins and James Gallagher. A vote for any of these three candidates may put Ward, O’Neal, or Cartier onto the council. None of these candidates filled out our questionnaire.

For the Bangor School Committee — it’s really tough. There are 4 candidates for 2 spots; 3 are really good, and one is truly awful:

• Mallory Cook and Benjamin Speed: we think both are great, and we have endorsed both.
• Frank Casella is someone that has no business being on our School Committee. Here’s the BDN write-up on Casella (language warning):

“Casella is active on X, formerly known as Twitter, and has shared opinions online criticizing immigrants for not assimilating to American culture, ‘gender ideology,’ and the Muslim faith. He has written that ‘Islam is a backwards religion’ and called people ‘whore’ and ‘stupid commie retard.’” (Note: some of these posts may have been taken down.)

• Laura Otis: she’s really good, but unfortunately, a vote for her will likely end up putting Frank Casella on the School Committee.

What can you do?

1. Vote for the bloc of endorsed candidates: We are encouraging people to vote as a bloc for both City Council and School Committee, meaning vote for all of our endorsed candidates to avoid splitting votes. If people split votes, it opens the door for some pretty poor candidates to get elected.
2. City Council and School Committee Forum: This will be on Thursday, October 16, from 5:30 to 8 p.m. It would be good to have a strong turnout.
3. Door knock with us: We are knocking doors in Bangor all the time, especially Saturdays beginning at 9 a.m. We have materials and will train you if you’ve never done it. It’s really enjoyable having conversations with our neighbors. This is a great volunteer opportunity to make a difference in our community.
4. Speak to friends and neighbors: With so much at stake, we are encouraging people to speak to their friends and neighbors, because some people don’t know these details.

Let us know if you want to join in—especially for the door knocks. Just reply to this email. See below for info on this Saturday’s No Kings rally and march in Bangor, organized by Indivisible.

Take care,
Jack