BREAKING NEWS: Martha Dudman wins MD select board re-election in landslide

NORTHEAST HARBOR, May 6, 2024 - Select board member Martha Dudman, champion of affordable housing to protect the integrity of the town as a year-round community, won re-election handily Monday in a rare, contested race for municipal office.

Dudman, who is starting her 12th year on the board, received 143 votes against 87 for former public works director Tony Smith.

The turnout was unusually high for a local election in Mount Desert with 11.5 percent of the 2,010 registered voters casting ballots. Last year fewer than 6 percent of the electorate voted.

How the select board race will translate into tonight’s important vote on the proposed ordinance to license short-term vacation rentals, at the town’s annual meeting, remains unclear.

Dudman was the principal force behind the proposed ordinance which would compel landlords who advertise on Airbnb and VRBO to register by 2025 at which time a moratorium will disallow any new permits until the STRs fall below 10 percent of the town’s housing stock.

Dudman also was a supporter, along with select chair John Macauley and member Geoff Wood, of the proposed six units of workforce housing in the village which is being challenged in court by some of the wealthiest summer residents in town.

Dudman, Macauley and Wood have spoken passionately to halt the diminution of affordable homes for working class families.

Supporters of the proposed ordinance tonight were buoyed by Dudman’s overwhelming victory.

The town meeting starts at 6 at the Mount Desert Elementary School.

Other winners Monday were school board members Katherine Emery and Brian Henkel, and school trustee Julianna Reddish Bennoch. They were uncontested.