By Amanda Estes
Staff Writer
Election season is underway across the country as candidates and issue advocates campaign for attention and votes ahead of the Nov. 6 contests, a little less than eight weeks away.
In South Portland, two at-large council seats, currently held by Linda Boudreau and Ralph Baxter, will be contested. Four candidates returned petitions with the required minimum of 100 signatures.
Boudreau will run again and will be joined in the race by Tom Blake, Don Legere, and Louis Maietta, Jr.
Paul Nixon and Valorie Swiger both took out petitions on Aug. 2, however, neither had returned their papers by the Sept. 10 deadline.
Baxter, who earlier indicated he would not run, did not request a nomination petition.
Incumbent Boudreau has 15 years of experience on the council and has served on the planning board and school board. She also occupied the post of mayor three times.
Currently, she also serves as board chairman of ecomaine, the municipal owned waste management company.
Asked about her motivation for running again, Boudreau spoke of financial planning for the city’s future.
“I think the city is in a financial situation where we need to be very much aware of what our long-term needs are and how in fact that fits into financial planning for the city,” she said. “I think in some times the city has had incredible growth for businesses and has had more financial resources than we have now.”
Louis Maietta Jr. also has experience on the council, having held a district 2 seat from 1999 to 2002. In 2002, Maietta served a two-year term in the state legislature. Maietta said, “I’m ready to go back and do what I started back then.”
In June 2006, Maietta ran an unsuccessful campaign – in a five-way race, which Ralph Baxter won – to fill the unexpired term of at large councilor Robert Fickett, who resigned earlier that year due to failing health.
Maietta said he seeks, among other things, to benefit the city with his knowledge of the budget process.
Tom Blake and Don Legere do not have experience on the council, but both have made community involvement a priority.
For Blake, as a former city employee, this election cycle will be the first time he has been eligible to run for city council. According to the city charter, city employees are prohibited from running for public office. Last February, Blake retired from the South Portland Fire Department, after 27 years as a full-time firefighter and paramedic. Currently, he is the captain of the Ferry Village Engine One Call Company, a position he will have to give up if he wins a council seat.
A founding member and current president of the South Portland Land Trust, chairman of the West End Trails Committee and member of the Long Creek Revitalization Planning Committee, Blake is familiar with urban environmental issues.
“I’m completely convinced that South Portland is an absolutely beautiful community,” he said.
Legere has served on various boards and committees including the school board, TIF committees and both the Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce and the South Portland Cape Elizabeth Chamber of Commerce.
While he has missed community involvement in his life, Legere said the negativity surrounding former City Manager Ted Jankowski’s leadership also factored into his motivation to run for the council this year.
“I think it’s a great city and I want to affect it in a positive way,” he said. “It isn’t because I was mad at anything. The first city manager was probably the result of a hiring process that didn’t work out very well.”    
In Cape Elizabeth, two town council seats, currently held by Paul McKenney and Mary Ann Lynch, are up for grabs. Both Lynch and McKenney will seek reelection for another three-year term. Greg Altznauer will seek to win a seat for the first time.
Altznauer has run for the council every year since moving to Maine three years ago.
“I’m running on some very basic points,” he said. “I want to protect Cape’s farms, open land and woodlands.”
Altznauer said if elected, he would advocate for the creation of an inland wetland and watercourse committee to review site plans and provide recommendations to the planning board.
He said maintaining a strong school system and implementing a comprehensive plan that fits residents’ visions for a natural environment are also among his priorities.
Lynch has six years of experience on the council and said her work on the comprehensive plan committee factored into her decision to run again.
“That’s at a point where the council is considering the final plan and after the council adopts the final plan it will be implemented so I want to see that process through,” she said. “I think the comprehensive plan says in a lot of ways, let’s stay on the same track, let’s not do things too differently.”
McKenney, the council’s current chairman, is seeking another three-year term after first being elected to the council in 2005.
“I feel that I have been able to constructively benefit the town of Cape Elizabeth and we have a lot of initiatives moving forward that I would like to see to completion,” he said.
McKenney said he continues to be focused on environmental protection issues and providing adequate school and municipal budgets that allow the town to maintain the level of services residents have come to expect, while keeping tax increases reasonable.
This November, residents will also vote on school board candidates. In Cape Elizabeth, two three-year terms, currently held by Patricia Brigham and Rebecca Millet, and the remaining two years of an unexpired term, currently held by Kevin Sweeney, will be contested. Sweeney resigned from the board on Aug. 7 and will officially step down on Sept. 30 due to health and personal reasons. 
Millet, John (Jack) Kennealy and Michael Foley will compete in a three-way contest for the two three-year terms with the two top vote getters winning office. Brigham is seeking election to the remainder of Sweeney’s term.
In South Portland, elections for four school board seats will be on the ballot, due in part to the resignations of William Harris and Mark Reuscher, although none will be contested. Harris resigned from the board on April 6, due to recurring health problems. Burt Edwards was appointed to fill Harris’ seat until the election.
Reuscher submitted his letter of resignation to board chairman Richard Carter on Aug. 8, citing his marriage to a school employee as a conflict of interest according to state law.
Richard Carter, current chairman, is the only incumbent and will seek reelection to his district 1 seat. Sara Goldberg will run for a district 2 seat while Ralph Baxter Jr. and Karen Callaghan will run unopposed to fill Reuscher and Harris’ unexpired terms.