Special election in Scarborough

Nomination papers to fill Town Council seat vacated by Karen D’Andrea due Sept. 5

SCARBOROUGH — The Scarborough Town Council on Aug. 15 voted 6-0 to accept the resignation of Karen D’Andrea, who announced earlier that week her intent to leave her council seat “effective immediately.”

Although the race to fill the final two years of D’Andrea’s second term is technically a special election, councilors unanimously set the general election, Nov. 6, as balloting day. Town Manager Tom Hall said that move saves Scarborough taxpayers the expense – pegged at “roughly $2,000” – of staging a separate contest.

Nomination papers for two full-term council seats were made available Aug. 1, but state statute and Scarborough’s charter allow for a shortened nomination process in special elections. Nomination papers for D’Andrea’s seat were ready for pick up at the town clerk’s office Aug. 16. Like regular-election forms, they must be returned with signatures from at least 25 registered Scarborough voters. The deadline is 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 5.

In an email, read aloud at last week’s meeting by Councilor Carol Rancourt, D’Andrea cited “additional career responsibilities” that, she wrote, “leave me unable to maintain the high standards I set for myself as a public servant.”

D’Andrea, 53, is executive director for two area nonprofits – Maine Citizens Against Handgun Violence and Physicians for Social Responsibility. In April, she took on additional hours at those jobs and, in an August 13 reply to emailed questions, said she plans to add “one and maybe two more nonprofit clients” to her workload.

“I’m just solidifying the contract with one this week after negotiations last week,” she said, at the time.
“As many of my friends and supporters already know, I am passionate about the work I do for nonprofit organizations and can now fully dedicate my time to helping them forward their important work,” D’Andrea wrote in her resignation letter.

Since her successful reelection bid in November, D’Andrea has missed almost one-third of regular council meetings, including three of five held since May 2.

Town Clerk Tody Justice said Thursday that the race to fill D’Andrea’s seat will appear separately on the same ballot as the other council races, which will group all candidates together and award offices to the top two vote-getters. Prospective candidates must specify when requesting papers whether they are running for the short term or one of the two full-term posts available.

Within hours of the new office opening up, Justice said, one candidate had jumped ship. Alternate planning board member Kerry Corthell took out forms Aug. 16 for D’Andrea’s seat after previously pulling papers for a full-term. A development director at Spurwink services, Corthell has mounted two previous, unsuccessful runs at the council.

Corthell’s move leaves three potential candidates at this time for the regular Town Council terms, including Paul Andriulli, Chris Cook and incumbent Jessica Holbrook.

Andriulli, a general contractor who owns P.A. Renovations Inc., ran last year, finishing just out of the money, in fourth place for three open seats. Cook, the Director of Strategic Analysis and Systems at Maine Medical Center, was the first and only candidate as of late last week to return nomination forms and qualify for the ballot, said Justice. It is not uncommon in Scarborough for a slew of candidates return forms, or even to take out papers, very near to the filing deadline, said Justice, anticipating additional names on the ballot by Election Day.

Carol Rancourt, who currently holds one of the two full-term seats up for grabs, is not eligible to run again due to charter dictates, which limit councilors to three consecutive, three-year terms.