Brewer quoted in Press Herald article on Lewiston mayoral race
Mark Brewer, a political science professor at the University of Maine, was quoted in the Portland Press Herald article, “Without a majority vote, Lewiston’s mayoral race goes to a runoff.” Mayor Robert Macdonald and challenger Ben Chin will face each other in a runoff election Dec. 8 after finishing at the top of the field in Tuesday’s election, according to the article. Chin received 3,673 votes to finish first, and Macdonald was second with 3,107 votes, but neither got more than 50 percent of the vote, the article states. The Lewiston race is nonpartisan, but activists from both major parties have been invested. Chin works for the Maine People’s Alliance, a leading advocacy group that has helped Democrats get elected in legislative and gubernatorial contests, and Macdonald has been supported by the Maine Republican Party, the article states. “In many ways this race is a microcosm of the statewide debate between Democrats and at least the Paul LePage wing — which is the dominant wing — of the Republican Party,” Brewer said. “The candidates appeal to very different constituencies in Lewiston, the same way the two major parties in Maine now appeal to very different constituencies statewide.”