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LINCOLN, Maine — Voters in Lincoln are petitioning to recall a slate of four town councilors after months of upheaval roiled this Penobscot County mill town.
The four conservatives, led by the controversial vice chair David Ireland, are getting blowback for weighing cuts and presiding over chaotic meetings. Since the November election, the council has burned through three managers, including one who declined the job before he started.
Between now and late June, Lincoln voters have the chance to show up at the town office to sign any or all of four separate petitions targeting Ireland and fellow members Sheldon Hanington, Lee Rand and Eric Rojo. If any of the petitions receive just over 700 signatures, a recall election will be triggered. As of late Wednesday, each had roughly 200 signatures.
The political battle is being waged among AI-generated memes and Ireland’s plans for an event honoring President Donald Trump’s birthday. The members being targeted say they’re cleaning up a mess left by the last council. But the former councilor leading it said he is responding to an “enraged” public after the recent firing of the town manager.
“There [were] already calls for recalls going back months,” George Edwards, who was defeated in the last two council elections, said.
Ireland won his seat last year after campaigning for the removal of Richard Bronson, the previous town manager. Bronson resigned after Ireland won. After a tumultuous search, the town hired Dennis Bullen. Less than two months in, the conservatives fired him in a 4-3 decision. One of the councillors who was opposed to the firing told the Bangor Daily News the conservatives fired Bullen because he wasn’t moving quickly enough on their demands for budget cuts.
The town quickly hired Wade Shaefer, a local taekwondo studio owner and pastor with no municipal experience. Many in town are unhappy with the way Shaefer was hired because no other candidates were interviewed and a background check has not yet been completed.
Town officials have declined to elaborate on how they found Shaefer, citing privacy rules around personnel decisions. Hanington, a former Republican state lawmaker, said the town would have to “live by” the majority’s decision to hire Shaefer.
At a Wednesday meeting, one resident voiced concern that the process of replacing Bullen did not follow proper procedure, saying it looked “suspicious.”
Edwards, the former councillor leading the recall push, also said petitioners were concerned about increasing partisanship of town politics. Edwards, a Democrat who says he skews independent, said town politics used to be “separate” from national political culture.
Ireland brands himself as a Trump supporter, frequently appearing in a red “47” hat. A prolific Facebook poster, he often shares AI-generated videos of classic-style trucks and conservative podcast clips, peppered with occasionally combative posts about town politics. He recently posted a flyer on his Facebook page advertising a parade next month which would celebrate Flag Day alongside the president’s 80th birthday.
Ireland declined to comment when approached by a reporter at the Wednesday meeting. But Rojo, who ran as a Republican for the Maine Senate in 2022, said councilors do not plan to spend town money on the Flag Day parade.
Some of the targeted councilors expressed confidence they would not be recalled. In a video statement, Ireland said he was not upset by the move by “big tax and spenders.”
“There are people in this town who believe that higher property taxes and more spending are just the way things have to be,” he said.
Reached by phone, Rand and Rojo both chuckled when asked by a reporter about the recall push. Rand declined to comment, and Rojo said the majority of the council was now fixing spending problems caused by the prior council.
“We’re cleaning up their mess, and that’s probably why Edwards wants us recalled,” he said. “Because he’s going to be further embarrassed, even though already he ran twice and he was not reelected. So he didn’t get the message.”
Daniel O’Connor is a Report for America corps member who covers rural government as part of the partnership between the Bangor Daily News and The Maine Monitor, with additional support from BDN and Monitor readers.
