Two Bangor city councilors are running for county commission

By Kathleen O’Brien, Bangor Daily New Staff

Two Bangor city councilors and one former councilor are running for a seat on the Penobscot County Commission in the June primary election. 

Bangor city councilors Joe Leonard and Dan Tremble submitted signatures late last week to vie for the District One seat on the Penobscot County Commission. Both are running as Democrats. 

The position, which represents Bangor, Brewer, Clifton, Eddington, Holden and Orrington, is held by longtime Commissioner Peter Baldacci, who will not be running for reelection.

The three-person commission is responsible for the fiscal operations and policy decisions of the county government. It has authority over all county offices, including elected and appointed officials, and is tasked with preparing and monitoring the county budget.

Both Leonard and Tremble said they would continue serving on the Bangor City Council if elected to the commission. Neither believe the demands and workloads of both positions would be too much to handle, nor would they conflict with one another. 

“I have no intention of stepping down from the City Council,” Leonard said. “If elected, I’ll still be very much present at City Council meetings. It’s an honor to represent the city that I love.” 

Tremble said he feels he’d be able to balance both roles, and has a good understanding of the demands of a commissioner, because he served as the Penobscot County treasurer from 2006 to 2018. He held a seat on the Bangor City Council for a portion of that time, as he was a city councilor from 1999 to 2005, then again from 2016 to present. 

If elected, Tremble would only need to do both roles for 10 months before his term on the Bangor council expires in 2025. 

Leonard, however, began a new three-year term on the council in November 2023. He first joined the council in June 2022 through a special election. 

Both Tremble and Leonard said they decided to run for county commission because they want to have a role in the construction of a new Penobscot County Jail, which has been a years-long point of contention between officials and activists. 

If elected, Leonard said he would advocate for the new jail to have a robust rehabilitation program to reduce the number of people who reoffend after being released. 

Tremble said he would also like to improve the ways other Penobscot County communities administer general assistance, as Bangor has a good system for the program that largely lacks uniformity and clarity from town-to-town. 

Cary Weston, who served on the City Council from 2009 to 2012 and again from 2016 to 2019, is running for the District One commissioner position as a Republican. He is president of Sutherland Weston, a Bangor-based marketing agency. 

Weston said he decided to run for public office again because he believes “many of the issues we face as a community are regional in nature, and I believe the answers to many of them should be too.” 

“I think the county can play a key role in helping bring people, ideas, and resources together,” Weston said. 

Andre Cushing is running unopposed to hold his District Two seat on the commission, which represents Carmel, Charleston, Corinna, Corinth, Dexter, Dixmont, Etna, Exeter, Garland, Glenburn, Hampden, Hermon, Hudson, Kenduskeag, Levant, Newburgh, Newport, Plymouth and Stetson.

The third position representing District Three, now occupied by Dave Marshall, isn’t up for reelection this year.