Republicans, Democrats settle on their candidates

PORTLAND — As they look towards the November election, Democrats are staying with their incumbents on the Board of Selectmen while Republicans are fielding a mixed blend of new faces and incumbents.

However, the GOP has not put forward a challenger to incumbent Democratic First Selectwoman Susan S. Bransfield, who is seeking her ninth term as the town’s chief executive.

Bransfield is expected to face challenges from two independent candidates.

Following their individual caucuses, the two parties have announced their slates of candidates for November. With the exception of Bransfield, there is a dearth of female candidates for the governing Board of Selectman.

In addition to Bransfield, the Democrats renominated Deputy First Selectman Louis J. Pear and selectmen Benjamin R. Srb, James K. Tripp, and Ralph R. Zampano.

Republicans renominated incumbent selectmen Michael A. Pelton and Edward J. Sharr Jr.

The GOP also nominated Michael Hernandez and David Murphy to run for Board of Selectmen.

Murphy is currently a member of the Board of Education.

Hernandez, the father of a 5yearold daughter, is active in the community, both as a Little League coach but also as the commander of the local VFW Post, No. 6121.

Portlandborn and raised, Hernandez is project manager for Environmental Systems, Inc.

A graduate of Portland High School, Hernandez served in the U.S. Navy in the early 1990s.

He said he is motivated to become involved in local politics as a result of “my loyalty to my town and my love for my country.”

“I’m a pretty big patriot,” he said.

Bransfield said her four Democratic incumbents on the board are all excellent candidates, adding she is “very eager to serve with them.”

As recently as 2017, there were three women on the sevenmember board: Bransfield, fellow Democrat Kathleen Richards and Republican Kitch Breen Czernicki.

Richards chose not to seek reelection and Czernicki was defeated in her bid for reelection.

Since then neither major party has nominated a woman for the board.

While the GOP did not nominate a candidate to run against Bransfield, Democrats in turn did not nominate a candidate to challenge incumbent Town Clerk Ryan J. Curley, who is a Republican.

Republicans have not settled on a slate of candidates for the Board of Education.

They are scheduled to meet later this week in an effort to finalize their slate.

Democrats have nominated two incumbents for seats on the school board: Margaret Scata and Laurel Steinhauser, and a political newcomer, Lauren Christensen, who is a publicschool music teacher.

As she has done throughout her tenure as chief executive, Bransfield applauded all the candidates — Democrats and Republicans alike — who have chosen to run this year.

“I commend all those people have stepped forward and decided to run, and I look forward to meeting them all and working with them,” she said.

In the past, Bransfield has said she is guided by Theodore Roosevelt’s famous speech regarding “The Man In The Arena.”

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

The speech, entitled “Citizenship in a Republic,” was delivered by the thenformer president at the Sorbonne in Paris on April 23, 1910.

Information about the speech appears on the website of the Theodore Roosevelt Center at Dickinson State University.