AUGUSTA — There’s a stark contrast between the two candidates for the top prosecutor’s job in Kennebec and Somerset counties.

The incumbent district attorney, Maeghan Maloney, is a veteran Democratic politician who’s out stumping for votes, marching in parades and speaking to a number of groups.

Her opponent is Kevin Sullivan, an attorney who’s on the ballot as an independent, but is not actively campaigning. He’s content to talk to people who ask about his candidacy. He was interviewed by one television station and is scheduled to be interviewed this week by a Christian radio station, but that’s all free coverage, and his only parade appearance has been in Cumberland with his children’s 4-H group.

The announcement of his candidacy says he “accepted Jesus Christ as his personal savior in 2006 and looks forward to some day going home to live with the Lord for all of eternity.”

Sullivan is not spending any money campaigning and not seeking public endorsements.

“If people want to vote for me, they will,” said Sullivan, 40, of Gardiner.

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Sullivan has pledged not to prosecute the possession, use, sale, cultivation or trafficking of marijuana in Kennebec or Somerset counties if he is elected.

Maloney said she has prosecuted marijuana offenses only in connection with dealing or trafficking marijuana in addition to other charges.

Current state law classifies possession of a small amount of marijuana as a civil violation rather than a criminal offense.

Maloney, 43, of Augusta, spent two years representing part of Augusta in the Maine House, then opted to run for a two-year partial term for district attorney when Evert Fowle left early after being appointed a district court judge. The winner of the Nov. 4 election will serve four years.

Maloney had a tough battle to secure the Democratic nomination, then won the race by 10,000 votes in November 2012, topping Republican Darrick X. Banda 45,834 to 35,349. This year, Republicans did not nominate a candidate for the race.

“I’ve done a lot of campaigning from the point of view that I love meeting people and listening to people,” Maloney said in an interview in her office at the Kennebec County Courthouse on Thursday. She said she’s been speaking at a number of local service groups as well.

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“My goal is to be very accessible so people in the community can tell me if they have concerns about their interactions with the criminal justice system,” she said.

Maloney said she’s most proud of two accomplishments over her two years as the area’s top prosecutor: instituting a program that allows the district attorney’s office to electronically monitor the whereabouts of defendants in domestic violence cases and helping to preserve and expand the veterans court and the Co-Occurring Disorders Court programs, which faced funding problems.

She wants to do more with a fledgling restorative justice program — which brings together the offender and the victim so the victims can say how the crimes affected them. That was a component of the sentence for Christopher Knight, also known as the North Pond Hermit, who pleaded guilty a year ago to 13 crimes of burglary and theft, a small fraction of the 1,000 authorities say he committed in his 27 years of hiding in the Maine woods.

“I’m currently part of a community group that’s meeting to determine how we want to do restorative justice in Kennebec County,” she said.

She is concerned that the number of crimes has increased over the past year.

“We have 300 more cases in superior court than this time last year,” Maloney said. The arrest numbers too are higher than in 2013, she said.

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Sullivan too said he was aware that the number of criminal files has been running about 20 percent higher lately.

“Crime is not up 20 percent,” Sullivan said during an interview Friday in his Winthrop Street, Augusta, office. “Cases are not being properly screened.”

He said minor cases should be screened differently to save the state money.

As for the specialty court programs, Sullivan said they “are a great idea, but there’s such a small number of people in it you can’t allocate an exceptional amount of resources.”

He also said help for individuals needs to come before they’ve been involved with the criminal justice system.

“The district attorney can’t really help people,” he said. “That’s at the end of the game.”

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Sullivan said he would use his organizational skills to run the office more efficiently.

“It’s about money,” he said. “The government needs to be more efficient with our money, and most people don’t want to be taxed more.”

Betty Adams — 621-5631

badams@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @betadams


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