A majority of Presque Isle voters joined much of the rest of The County and country in helping elect Republican Donald Trump as the next president, while at the same time keeping and voting out incumbents from both major parties in different local and state positions.
Across Aroostook County, 34,852 people voted in the Nov. 7 elections, and 55.5 percent of them voted for Trump, 38.3 percent for Democrat Hillary Clinton, 4.7 percent for Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson and 1.5 percent for Green Party candidate Dr. Jill Stein.
In Presque Isle, 4,243 people turned out, with 49.6 percent favoring Trump, 41.9 percent Clinton, 6.6 percent Johnson and 1.8 percent Stein. Statewide, Clinton earned 47.9 percent of the vote, Trump 45.1 percent, Johnson 5 percent and Stein 1.9 percent.
This year’s turnout brought out about 58 percent of Presque Isle’s eligible voters, and was a bit below 2012, when 4,310 voted and gave President Obama a 51 percent majority.
“Glad it’s over with. Time to get back to life,” said Marci Wilcox, a 46-year-old licensed nurse in Presque Isle who voted for Trump. “I wish I didn’t have to endorse him,” she said of Trump. “We didn’t have much of a choice.”
Her daughter, Morgan Wilcox, a 20-year-old University of Maine Presque Isle student, voted for Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson, knowing it would be a protest vote. She said she would have preferred voting for Bernie Sanders, who narrowly lost the Democratic nomination.
On the six state referenda, Presque Isle mirrored the rest of the state on questions 2, 3, 4 and 6. Majorities here voted in favor of the special education funding tax (51 percent to 49 percent), minimum wage increase (52 percent to 48 percent) and transportation bond (55 percent to 45 percent), which all passed at the state level. A majority here also voted against the firearm background check initiative, 61 percent to 39 percent, which was rejected statewide. Majorities in Presque Isle voted against marijuana legalization (60 percent to 40 percent) and against ranked choice voting (55 percent to 45 percent), both of which succeeded statewide.
Both Marci and Morgan Wilcox said they voted in favor of legalizing marijuana and increasing the minimum wage. Morgan Wilcox said she stands to get a raise if it passes, after working for the Presque Isle Recreation Department for three years at $7.55 an hour.
In the second Congressional District race, Republican Bruce Poliquin was elected to a second term with 58.8 percent of the vote in Aroostook County, compared to Democrat Emily Can’s 41.2 percent. In Presque Isle, 59.5 percent went to Poliquin, and across the second congressional district spanning much of inland rural Maine and Downeast, Poliquin earned 55 percent of the vote.
In the race for House District 147 representing much of Presque Isle, Republican Trey Stewart won the seat held for two terms by Democrat Bob Saucier, with 55 percent of the vote. In the House District 148 race, representing Easton, Fort Fairfield, Limestone and other communities, Democrat David McCrea beat Republican Anthony Edgecomb with 53.7 percent of the vote.
And in the Senate District 2 race, representing southern and central Aroostook County, Democrat Mike Carpenter beat Republican Rick Long, with 54.8 percent of the vote.
In the local races, Presque Isle voters chose Craig Green and Kevin Freeman for two open seats on city council. Green, re-elected to his second full-term, earned 34 percent of the vote and Freeman 17.7 percent. Among the other candidates, Don Gardner earned 17.4 percent of the vote, Gene Cronin 16 percent and Jacqueline Goodine 14 percent. In Fort Fairfield, Mitchell Butler and Melissa Libby won a three-way race for two town council seats, beating out current councillor Robert Kilcollins.
“For me, all politics are local,” said Green, as he joined other candidates greeting and speaking with voters on election day. Green said he identifies as conservative and voted for Trump and against all of the referenda except the transportation infrastructure bond. Whatever changes or doesn’t at the national level, Green said he wants to see more people work to solve local problems like rising property taxes and increasing school budgets.
“The only thing we can really affect is what we deal with in our own community. I’ve been more of the mind that I can be more effective to go out in my community and help people than I can be to sit back, and I think everyone has that potential.”
The Presque Isle city clerk did not have data on this year’s turnout compared to last year. But Green said he saw a steady stream of voters throughout the day, and more than 1,100 voted early.
“There was a tremendous amount of young people coming in and registering for the first time, and I don’t know what has motivated them, but whatever it is, it’s great,” Green said.
On some of the challenges ahead for local governments and tax-paying communities, Green said the future needs to involve more collaboration, particularly on managing school districts.
“We regionally need to work together. We have a superintendent in Mars Hill, Fort Fairfield, Easton, Presque Isle, Caribou and Ashland, and that’s just in a very small population,” Green said. “We see it in the city, too. We have small city departments that surrounding communities could share.
There are different schools of thought on how to fix the problems with school spending, including demands for the original 55 percent of state support (which may or may not happen in the wake of the new surcharge) and arguments in favor of simplifying school administration and reducing standardized curriculum and testing mandates.
Green said he’s skeptical of state-mandated approaches, such as the consolidation effort pushed by former Governor John Baldacci that’s led to a backlash and local withdrawals of regional units from communities who felt they didn’t have an equitable say in decisions.
Positive change on education and other local problems need to start from the grassroots, Green said. “We as a region need to make up our mind that we can work together and then do it. Then we can have the support of the state.”
