Outgoing councilor says candidate ‘too radical’

ROCKLAND – Two-term City Councilor James Raye has never been shy about sharing his political opinions.

But those opinions, even when they are bluntly delivered, are motivated by a deep love for the city, he said Thursday.

Raye, who is not seeking re-election to the council, sounded off on the Nov. 6 council election in a letter to the editor published in Thursday’s Courier-Gazette, a local newspaper. In the letter, Raye endorsed Mark Curtis and Ed Mazurek, candidates for the two open seats on the council.

But the bulk of the letter was devoted to candidate Lizzie Dickerson.

Dickerson is “someone too radical to serve Rockland,” Raye wrote, citing a commentary Dickerson wrote in the weekly Free Press about the United States supporting violent governments.

“Dickerson is a potentially dangerous candidate who could begin to unravel the many successes I have had a chance to work on for the city,” Raye wrote.

He also charged that Dickerson had to be physically removed from property owned by MBNA. And in a reference to Dickerson’s opposition to the proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter, he wrote that she “would lead us down an endless path of debate” on issues such as which company “uses child labor” in Third World countries.

On Thursday, Dickerson said she was sorry Raye feels as he does.

“I don’t feel particularly dangerous,” she said. “I’m just an average woman trying to live my life.”

The MBNA incident, she said, occurred this summer when a contractor working for the credit card lender began demolishing a house in the city’s South End. MBNA completed a new office complex in the South End in midsummer.

Dickerson had been vocal the previous summer when MBNA announced its plans for the city. Those plans included the demolition of several old homes, and she organized some in the neighborhood to push to save some of the buildings. She works in the Good Tern Co-op, which is near the new MBNA complex.

“I had been working for many, many months” with historic preservation groups and MBNA representatives to save some of the buildings from the wrecking ball, she said. MBNA changed its plans and renovated some of the buildings, but demolished others.

Dickerson said the demolition came as a surprise.

“That was one of the buildings we thought was going to stay,” she said. When the structure was knocked down, she stepped onto the edge of the rubble, she said, as a symbolic gesture.

She was asked to leave the property and did so, Dickerson said.

“I didn’t have to be escorted or removed,” she said.

“We have a housing crisis” in Rockland, Dickerson said, which she believes is only going to get worse as MBNA hires more people. She believes homes should be saved, not demolished.

But Raye stands by his assertion, and said Thursday his source for the information was employees of H.E. Sargent, MBNA’s construction contractor.

“They had to restrain her,” he said. “It was disgusting to hear that. I don’t think that’s City Council material.”

Dickerson noted that she has not spoken against MBNA’s presence in the city, which Raye’s letter implies, and she gives the company credit for trying to compromise with neighbors.

Though she believes her views on U.S. foreign policy are not related to her bid for a council seat, Dickerson stands by her Free Press commentary.

“I would like us to stop supporting bloodthirsty regimes,” she said. As a nation, “we need to take a critical look at ourselves.”

Dickerson said she knows a woman who lost a family member in the terrorist attacks and that the woman thanked Dickerson for writing the commentary.

As for Wal-Mart and child labor, she points out that the Bangor City Council voted to buy uniforms for city employees only when they are certified as not coming from sweatshops.

“I think everybody would agree that’s a good thing,” she said.

Raye said he had no regrets about the letter.

“I feel that strongly about that lady getting in here,” he said. “She’ll be taking the city down the wrong path.”