Local ballots take shape for Nov. 8

Area candidates unopposed, except for Scarborough council

REGION — Absent a significant write-in campaign, all candidates for municipal office in Cape Elizabeth and South Portland will run unopposed this year. The same is also true for the undercard in Scarborough, where only the Town Council races will give voters something to think about on Election Day, Nov. 8.

And those council races are not entirely without significance.

SCARBOROUGH

Thanks to the resignation of Councilor Michael Wood, four of seven seats are up in the air. With only three incumbents among the six official candidates, the voting majority, and thus the tone of town discourse for the next few years, could take a decided swing.

All candidates were scheduled to appear at an Oct. 3 debate at Town Hall, sponsored by the Republican Town Committee. A second debate, sponsored by the Scarborough Community Chamber and featuring questions from local media, is slated for Thursday, Oct. 13, at 6 p.m., also at Town Hall. Both will be televised on the local public access station.

Of the three incumbents, Ron Ahlquist, 57, has chosen to run for the two years left on Wood’s unexpired term. Ahlquist, a ranger at Crescent Beach State Park in Cape Elizabeth, also is a field representative for the Maine State Employees Association. He has served eight years on the council over the past decade.

His opponent is Kerry Corthell, 59, development coordinator at Spurwink, a Portland provider of mental health services. She has lived in Scarborough for three years, serving on the Planning Board since January. A member of the Scarborough Economic Development  Corp.’s vision-implementation committee and vice chairwoman of the ad hoc charter review committee, Corthell placed third last year in her one previous run at the council, finishing behind Wood and council Chairwoman Judith Roy.

“I really do think I would bring a lot of value to the council,” she said Monday. “I don’t think all of the other council members have the same perspective I do.”

Corthell took out papers for both Wood’s seat and a regular three-year term, but submitted for the shorter post only because, “If I hadn’t, Ron Ahlquist would have been unopposed, and people should always have a choice.”

The four candidates for the three full terms include incumbents Richard Sullivan Jr. and Karen D’Andrea, as well as James Benedict, who trailed the field in last year’s council race, and political newcomer Paul Andriulli.

D’Andrea, 51, is executive director for two area nonprofits – Maine Citizens Against Handgun Violence and Physicians for Fiscal Responsibility. A former radio show host on WMPG, she is finishing her first term on the Town Council, having moved to Scarborough 10 years ago.

“I think I’ve been an effective town councilor,” she said. “Most people know, whether they agree with me or not, I will listen to them. I supported given people more time to speak at our meetings.”

D’Andrea also takes credit for the recently passed ban of synthetic pesticides from municipal property and for spearheading the drive to post public meetings on the town website. She says her goal for the coming term, if elected, will be to champion economic diversity. “We’ve got plenty of retail and a ton of biotech,” she said. “We don’t want all of our eggs in those baskets.”

Sullivan, a Portland firefighter with his own landscaping business, is making his third run at the Town Council. He was elected last year after a resignation left an open seat with one year remaining. He was voted out of office in 2009 following his first term.

Neither Sullivan nor Ahlquist could be reached for comment.

Of the non-incumbents, Andriulli, 55, also is a longtime firefighter, having served Scarborough as a volunteer for more than 20 years, including 15 in leadership. A general contractor and owner of P.A. Renovations Inc., Andriulli has lived in Scarborough for 26 years and hopes to bring a “blue-collar ingenuity” to the council.

“I think the council is doing a good job,” he said. “I’m just interested in keeping things in check.”

Finally, Benedict, 63, is an 11-year town resident, having retired from ownership of Wood Construction.

“I think the council needs a different set of eyes, a different perspective on some things that are going on around town,” he said, explaining his sole opposition among the candidates to the $39.1 million Wentworth school bond, which also will grace the Nov. 8 ballot.

“That’ll be closer to $70 million, with the interest, and we’re only into our third year of paying for the high school bond,” he said. “I know plenty of born-and-bred Scarboroughites who have no complaints about that building.”

Because all spots on the Scarborough Town Council are “at-large,” only one person will lose out when the music stops on the three open full-term seats.

Meanwhile, two are running unopposed for two open seats on the school board. Both are members of the building committee that is championing the Wentworth bond.

Christine Massengill, originally of Chicago, has lived in town for 12 years. She handles the administrative work for the company she co-owns with her husband, representing the makers of building products.

Meanwhile, Kelly Noonan Murphy, a Scarborough native, is a stay-at-home mom with a law degree.

Board member Colleen Staszko chose not to run again, while Christopher Brownsey, the board chairman, ran up against the local term-limit rule, which limits elected officials to three consecutive terms in office.

The three candidates for three seats on the Scarborough Sanitary District Board of Trustees – Charles Anderson, James Greenleaf and Robert McSorley – are all incumbents.

CAPE ELIZABETH

Everyone should be a winner in Cape Elizabeth, where two candidates are vying for two open seats on the Town Council. Chairman David Sherman is unopposed, as is first-time candidate Kathy Ray, thanks to Councilor Anne Swift-Kayatta’s decision to sit this one out.

Ray serves on the School Board. Her decision to have a go at the Town Council, coupled with the option exercised by board Chairwoman Mary Townsend to run for a lesser term, leaves two seats waiting for the only two candidates. They are first-timers Elizabeth Scifres, 36, a stay-at-home mother of two who spends her spare time coaching tennis, and Joanna Morrisey, 46, project manager for 21 Reasons, a Portland-based substance abuse prevention program.

Townsend drew no opposition in her quest to finish out the remaining two years on the seat vacated by Kim Monaghan-Derrig, who was elected to Maine’s House of Representatives this past August.

SOUTH PORTLAND

Three seats are open on the South Portland City Council, with incumbents Thomas Coward and Patricia Smith drawing no opposition in Districts 1 and 2, respectively. Meanwhile, in District 5, with Alan Livingston termed out, the only person to file nomination papers will run unopposed. He is Gerard Jalbert, a Planning Board member and Bank of America loan officer.

On the school board, incumbent Tappan C. Fitzgerald II will run alone for re-election to District 5, while two candidates are shoe-ins for two open at-large seats. One will go to incumbent Karen Callaghan, while the retirement of board Chairman Ralph Baxter Jr. clears the way for attorney Jeffrey Selser.