BREAKING NEWS: Friedmann wins 2 races, re-elected to council along with Minutolo
BAR HARBOR, June 12, 2024 - Gary Friedmann won both his state House primary and re-election to the municipal Town Council Tuesday. Joe Minutolo was the largest voter getter for re-election to his third term on the council with 743 votes. Nicole Groholski also won the primary for her District 7 state Senate seat.
Friedmann received 648 votes for council, 846 for State House. His opponent Sandra Gray for State House got 257 votes. Mount Desert vote 70-45 for Friedmann.
Here are the Bar Harbor results:
There was a coordinated effort to form a Minutolo/Friedmann bloc to repel the Chamber of Commerce slate given the possibility that it wouldn’t take a majority vote to win one of two seats.
Thirty-one percent of the 5,202 registered voters, 1,614, cast ballots.
An elected official told the QSJ that while some leaned toward activist Charles Sidman and former police chief Nate Young, many were encouraged to place their bets on the candidates most likely to defeat the Chamber slate.
In his second straight bid for office, Chamber president Bo Jennings was eliminated for the Warrant Committee with 566 votes. Former Chamber board member Nina St. Germain received 582 votes and restaurateur Michael Boland got 488 votes.
Very disappointing election. Apparently people do not want significant change. Crazy spending, backward process of spending then going to find the money, pet projects that lead to nowhere but wasted money (Higgins solar) due to lack of due diligence, etc. And to think only 31% got to decide all this. I voted, did you? I hate to think how many future problems (water quality, etc.) that the LUO will cause in the future due to the same lack of due diligence. Cross your fingers and hope....what a great plan!