House District 45 voters will return to the polls on June 13 for a special election to fill the legislative seat formerly held by Rep. Clinton Collamore, D-Waldoboro.
Gov. Janet Mills announced the special election, which will fill the seat until the next regular election in 2024, on Wednesday, March 15.
Party nominations must be turned in by March 31. Candidates without a party can qualify for the ballot by turning in 50 registered voter signatures by the same date.
Write-in candidates must file with the secretary of state by 5 p.m. on April 7.
Wendy Pieh, a Democrat from Bremen, announced plans to run at a Thursday, March 16 meeting of the Bremen Select Board.
Pieh has been a member of the select board, which she chairs, since 2004 and was a state representative in the Legislature from 1996 to 2000 and 2006 to 2008.
Other individuals may announce candidacy before the nominating caucus, scheduled for 3-5 p.m. on Sunday, March 26 at Medomak Valley High School.
Abden Simmons and Becky Stephens, both of Waldoboro, confirmed they are running for the Republican nomination. According to Lincoln County Republican Committee Chair Patty Minerich, the date for the party’s caucus is being finalized.
Simmons won Waldoboro’s House seat in 2016 and held it for one two-year term. He ran for Senate District 13 last year and lost to Cameron Reny, D-Bristol. Simmons, a lifelong resident and shellfish harvester, has been on the Waldoboro Select Board since 2016 and has chaired the shellfish committee for over 20 years. He previously sat on the Waldoboro Planning Board for six years.
Stephens was born and raised in the Midcoast. She has worked in physical therapy for more 30 years, the last 12 in Waldoboro. Stephens said she has been a foster parent for more than a decade and served as a Maine court-appointed special advocate for child protection cases. Before moving to Waldoboro, she was a member of the Lincolnville School Committee.
Collamore, who defeated Lynn Madison, R-Waldoboro, for the seat last November, announced he was resigning from the Legislature in February after pleading not guilty to charges related to signature forgery of the state’s publicly funded election program on Feb. 16.
He was indicted on the 33 charges – 20 felony charges of aggravated forgery, 11 misdemeanor charges of unsworn falsification, and one count of criminal violation of the Maine Clean Election Act – on Dec. 15, alleging that he forged signatures on forms needed to qualify for taxpayer-funded campaign money through the Maine Clean Election Act.
The act provides funds to candidates who collect $5 minimum contributions and signatures from at least 60 registered voters in their district.
Collamore said that, although he pleaded not guilty, he resigned because the loss of his only committee seat made him ineffective for voters. House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross, D-Portland, removed him from the Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Committee on Feb. 1.
Collamore had a dispositional conference with a prosecutor from the district attorney’s office on Monday, March 20.
According to his attorney Richard Elliott, of the Boothbay Harbor firm Elliott & Elliott, a second dispositional conference has been set for May 8 at a time to be determined. Elliott said the defendants and prosecution discussed the case, tried to reach an agreement, and needed more time to review evidence.
The final conference will determine whether Collamore’s case is settled by plea bargain or moves to motion hearing or jury trial docket.
