Harpswell will elect one member of its Board of Selectmen and two representatives to the Maine School Administrative District 75 Board of Directors in March, all for three-year terms. As of Dec. 1, candidates can take out nomination papers at the Town Office to make the ballot for those positions.
To appear on the ballot, a candidate must take out nomination papers, collect signatures from at least 25 and no more than 100 registered voters, then return the papers to the Town Office by 4:30 p.m. on Jan. 10.
The incumbents are Selectman Kevin Johnson and MSAD 75 Directors Eric Lusk and Margaret “Greta” Warren.
Johnson chairs the select board. During a Dec. 1 board meeting, he confirmed his intent to seek a fourth consecutive three-year term. The board has a “lot of irons in the fire,” he said. Johnson has returned his nomination papers, according to the town clerk’s office.
Lusk, a financial adviser, joined the school board in 2020. With no candidate on the ballot, he garnered 17 write-in votes in a March election to secure a three-year term, The Times Record reported at the time. Lusk has taken out nomination papers, according to the town clerk’s office.
Warren, a nonprofit administrator, joined the school board in March, when the select board picked her from among four candidates to fill a vacancy left by the resignation of Alison Hawkes. Warren did not respond to an inquiry about whether she would seek election.
An early entrant into the race is Gregory Greenleaf, an English teacher at Greely High School in Cumberland. Greenleaf, of Cundy’s Harbor, was one of the four candidates who sought Warren’s seat in March 2022.
(Editor’s note: Gregory Greenleaf writes the “Lost on a Loop Trail” humor column for the Harpswell Anchor.)
Another of those four candidates, Tyler Washburn, said in an email that he is considering a run and hopes to decide by Christmas. Washburn, a former Bowdoin representative to the school board, now lives on Orr’s Island.
With two seats on the ballot, both for three-year terms, voters can select up to two candidates for school board and the top two vote-getters will take the seats.
MSAD 75 consists of Bowdoin, Bowdoinham, Harpswell and Topsham. Harpswell has four seats on its 14-member board.
The election will coincide with Harpswell’s first traditional town meeting since 2019, on March 11 at Harpswell Community School. The polls for the election will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., while the business meeting will commence at 10 a.m.
