INDIAN ISLAND – In a primary election held this week, Penobscot Indian Nation members whittled down the number of candidates for six open tribal council seats and the position of vice chief.

In all, 367 tribal members participated in Tuesday’s vote, according to town officials.

Bill Thompson and Dennis Pehrson Sr. received the most votes among four possible candidates for vice chief and will go head-to-head in the tribe’s general election on Sept. 13.

Voters also will select a tribal chief, a representative to the Legislature, tribal council members, school board members and census committee members.

Current Chief Kirk Francis is running unopposed. Incumbent Donna Loring is being challenged for the representative seat by Wayne Mitchell.

Among those who will vie for the six tribal council seats are Martin Neptune, Chris “Charlie Brown” Francis, Debbie Kondilis, Maulian Dana, Ron Bear, Cheryl Francis, Jason K. Brown, Andy Sockbeson, Donna Decontie Brown, Joe Dana, Faye Decontie and Raymond Chevarie. Ten others participated in the primary along with five names that were write-in votes.

In unrelated matters, Penobscot tribal council recently appointed a new chief judge, Eric M. Mehnert, and a chief prosecutor, Marianne Lynch.

Mehnert, an Orono lawyer, ran unsuccessfully in 2006 against Jean Hay Bright in the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate seat held by Olympia Snowe. Hay Bright later lost to Snowe in the general election. Mehnert recently was a candidate to head the Democratic State Committee, a position that eventually went to John Knutson.

According to a biography released by the Penobscot Indian Nation, Mehnert has been a civil rights and criminal trial attorney for the last 23 years.

Lynch, a native of Pennsylvania, worked for many years as a prosecutor in the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts. For the past four years, she has worked for Pine Tree Legal Assistance, a consortium of lawyers that provides free services to low-income Mainers.

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