Who made Maine primary ballots in races to succeed LePage, run for Congress

6 years ago

AUGUSTA, Maine — Five Republicans and seven Democrats will run in Maine’s June primaries for the state’s open gubernatorial seat, promising an inaugural test for Maine’s first-in-the-nation ranked-choice voting system.

There were few surprises in the list of candidates who qualified for major primaries in 2018, but Republican U.S. Senate candidate Max Linn left Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap’s office without knowing if he qualified — and blew up at a staffer in the lobby.

Linn, a Bar Harbor financial planner and former Florida gubernatorial candidate who hopes to run against independent U.S. Sen. Angus King as a pro-President Donald Trump Republican, submitted more than the 2,000 signatures needed to qualify for a statewide primary by Thursday’s 5 p.m. deadline, but Dunlap said his office needed more time to verify them.

As Linn was leaving Dunlap’s office suite, Brad Littlefield, a former Sanford town councilor apparently working for him, nearly showed a reporter notes on what was happening with Linn’s petitions. But the candidate instructed him not to, later telling Littlefield he “created this nightmare” and saying, “Don’t get in my elevator.”

The County is pleased to feature content from our sister company, Bangor Daily News. To read the rest of “Who made Maine primary ballots in races to succeed LePage, run for Congress,” an article by contributing Bangor Daily News staff writer Michael Shepherd, please follow this link to the BDN online.