A multibillion-dollar budget fiasco fueled the current effort to recall California Gov. Gray Davis.

In the case of Swanville First Selectman Richard Marsden, it was a ditch.

Actually, those on both sides of the 2002 recall attempt in this small Waldo County town will say it wasn’t quite that simple.

More than Marsden’s approval of an otherwise unwanted roadside ditch more than a year ago, many conceded that the recall stemmed from deep political divisions already in the town.

Small-town politics tend to lend themselves to disputes of the drastic and often personal nature.

And in Swanville, population 1,300, the rifts were over Marsden’s leadership style and the perception that he, as petitioners bluntly put it, was “an out-of-state politician telling us what is best for us.”

“I’ve butted heads with them a few times,” Marsden, 58, said of the recall’s instigators, several of whom showed up at the town’s Wednesday selectmen’s meeting, where the former Massachusetts resident still presided after surviving the recall by winning a special election in November.

Recalls such as the one aimed at Marsden are relatively rare in Maine.

Although there is a handful of local recalls under way – most notably an effort to oust the majority of the Bangor City Council – there is no provision to recall the governor or any statewide or countywide officeholder in Maine, one of 31 states without such recall provisions.

Before the California recall, the last and only recall of a U.S. governor came in 1921, when voters ousted North Dakota Gov. Lynn Frazier who, like Davis, faced a dismal economy and a budget deficit during his troublesome third term.

The absence of a recall measure in Maine is not necessarily a bad thing, according to University of Maine political analyst Amy Fried.

“Politics is such a blood sport these days,” said Fried, noting that there are other ways, such as prosecution, to remove corrupt politicians.

And for those who are simply unpopular or unresponsive to constituents, “When the time comes, vote them out,” she said.

Personal politics

Fried is not alone in questioning the practice of recalls, historically sparked by tough economic times and personal distaste for a particular politician.

The debate over the practice has been pushed to the front pages in light of the California free-for-all in which a ballot-boggling 135 candidates hope to replace the embattled Democratic governor.

While Swanville is about as far away from Sacramento as someone can get, Marsden might have some valuable advice for Davis.

“I was not going to turn it into a contest with them,” said Marsden, who at the time declined potentially inflammatory on-camera interviews on local television, choosing instead to respond to petitioners’ complaints at a more official setting: the town meeting. “I just went down their points and told the truth.”

Although the special election in Swanville is long over, the tension could still be felt at Wednesday’s meeting – an awkward mix of obstinacy and diplomacy interspersed with polite conversation often punctuated with nervous laughter.

After the meeting, a group of petitioners stood in a circle outside the town offices, smoking cigarettes and talking about the recall try in which they easily gathered the needed 196 signatures to force a special election, but could not secure enough support to remove Marsden.

“We felt we couldn’t afford not to do something,” Cliff Sawyer said of the group’s prevailing attitude about the recall, the campaign for which quickly became personal, perhaps best exemplified by signs along Route 141 at the time reading, “Marsden is a liar.”

Despite the recall’s ultimate failure, Sawyer credited the attempt for changing attitudes among selectmen and raising voter interest.

“It woke a lot of people up.”

A tough road

Thirty miles away in Bangor on Thursday, Arvilla Verceles sat outside the Hannaford grocery store on Union Street in her attempt to wake up the city’s electorate.

“So what’s this all about?” asked one curious young man, who stopped after scoping out Verceles’ makeshift booth several times.

Verceles, 84, launched into her explanation of why seven of the nine Bangor councilors should be recalled for their recent decision to spend $381,000 to refurbish the Husson College stadium to accommodate the privately owned Bangor Lumberjacks baseball team.

“Why are we giving them money?” the man agreed, signing his name after studying the bright yellow flier detailing Verceles’ objections. She also objects to city donations to the National Folk Festival, the University of Maine Museum of Art and the Maine Discovery Museum.

In supporting those projects and others like them – a practice not uncommon among city governments – councilors cited the potential economic benefit to the city, which as the region’s retail center thrives on out-of-town dollars.

To force a recall, Verceles and her group must get signatures from 2,274 Bangor voters, 20 percent of those who voted in the last gubernatorial election.

Before the store’s management curtly asked her to leave, citing their policy against such political displays, Verceles collected more than a dozen signatures in an hour, nearly filling her sheet, which has room for 32 signatures.

“We’ll find somewhere else to go,” she said, smiling, after writing down the store employee’s name and promising to contact his superiors.

‘The whole council?’

But store policies forbidding petitioning are not the only obstacles Verceles is likely to face, judging by some reactions to her recall drive.

“The whole council?!” one surprised woman asked, expressing the thoughts of those in the city who consider the near total recall – virtually unprecedented – too drastic. “Hmmmmm.”

Although that woman ultimately signed each of the seven recall petitions – one for each councilor – after some cajoling, about half of those approached outside the Union Street store did not, responding to petitioners’ requests with doubtful looks, explanations of ignorance or determined silence.

The Bangor recall attempt is only the second here in the past 30 years. The last came in 1982, when a group, which included Verceles, attempted to recall four school committee members. That effort failed when petitioners could not gather enough signatures.

The rules governing recalls often prove a challenge by setting high thresholds for petitioners in terms of the number of needed signatures and the time limit in which to gather them.

“It’s not supposed to be an easy thing,” said Maine Municipal Association spokesman Mike Starn. “It tends to fall apart one way or another.”

Despite the inherent difficulties, Verceles said she was confident she could get 3,000 people to sign her petition by the Oct. 9 deadline.

The prospect of being removed from office in the middle of his second three-year term didn’t sit well with Councilor Dan Tremble, one of the seven targeted councilors.

“I think I can understand people disagreeing with the decision on the baseball field, but I’m not sure that 7-1 vote would mandate a recall,” Tremble said. “The thing is, with this group of people, if it wasn’t this, it would be something else.”