Lewiston shooting looms over Sagadahoc County sheriff race

Nov. 5—Sagadahoc County residents had to consider criticisms cast on both candidates for sheriff in the voting booth on Tuesday.

Sgt. Aaron Skolfield, a Republican, challenged four-term incumbent Sheriff Joel Merry, a Democrat. In Maine, sheriffs serve four-year terms.

Polls closed at 8 p.m., and nearly three hours later, none of the roughly dozen towns in that county had reported results yet.

Both candidates have been called out for the agency's failure to stop the gunman in the Lewiston mass shooting. The sheriff's department had been warned twice about the Bowdoin man's threats and worsening mental health before he shot and killed 18 people on Oct. 25.

The commission investigating the shooting specifically named Skolfield, who attempted a welfare check on the man, and criticized him for not using Maine's yellow flag law to seize his guns. And while Gov. Janet Mills has stopped short of endorsing a candidate in the sheriff's race, she hinted at a September news conference that Skolfield wasn't fit for the role.

Despite the heavy scrutiny, many voters said last month that they hadn't heard much about either candidate. A few voters who agreed to speak to a reporter strongly supported their candidate of choice, but they shared one commonality: hoping their future sheriff will be more transparent and communicative.

Standing outside of Bowdoin Central School on Tuesday evening, 65-year-old Ken Cochran said he voted to keep Merry in office. He said, as a Navy veteran himself, he blames the military for not intervening when the gunman showed signs of deteriorating mental health, not necessarily the sheriff's department.

"They could have done a better job, but I don't think the information was passed back," Cochran said.

This story will be updated.

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