Three Democratic candidates will face off in a primary contest for the District 1 Kennebec County commissioner’s seat in June.

Patsy Crockett, Pat Paradis and Carl Pease filed papers with the secretary of state’s office by the deadline earlier this month, signaling their intention to run in June.

This is the first time in more than a decade that a commissioner’s race has attracted this much interest.

The winner of the June 14 primary will run against Republican Kristin Clark, of Augusta, in November.

This three-way race is a repeat of the contest in the nomination process that played out last fall. Crockett, Paradis and Pease submitted their names for consideration in October 2015 to the Kennebec County Democratic Committee, which was tasked with finding a replacement on the commission for Beverly Daggett, who died in September. Daggett represented Augusta, Chelsea, China, Manchester, Sidney, Vassalboro and Windsor.

The committee selected Crockett and Paradis and submitted those names to Gov. Paul LePage for consideration. In February, LePage appointed Crockett to serve until the end of this year to complete Daggett’s term.

County commissioners are responsible for the fiscal operations and policy decisions of county government. Jails, courts and prosecuting attorneys fall under the county government umbrella, as do emergency management and public safety functions.

Crockett, 75, said she has experience working in both the private and public sectors, including two terms in the Maine House of Representatives, and has served as a volunteer for more than a dozen organizations. She spent 11 years in association management working as a lobbyist for both the Maine County Commissioners Association and the Maine Sheriffs Association, working to influence public policy.

“I saw that all 16 counties are very different because of the areas they’re in and their economics,” she said. “They need to be different, but there are things that some counties have picked up on that can help other counties.”

It might make sense to regionalize some services, she said, to save county residents money on their property taxes.

“I don’t want to give the idea that I am going to say you need to do this or that, but a conversation to look at consolidation of some things might be a good idea.”

Crockett said she’d also like to be able to work on issues that affect her district, such as the lack of senior housing available outside of Augusta and clarity about how communities that don’t have their own law enforcement agencies are patrolled.

Like Crockett, Paradis, 62, has spent time in the Legislature, serving from 1978 to 1994 in the House. During that time, he served in leadership positions, including as assistant majority leader and majority whip. But, he said, the accomplishments of which he is proudest are two proposals that changed Maine law. In 1989, a bill he sponsored changed the way sexual assault is prosecuted and the penalties for conviction; and in 1991, he authored a bill that would eliminate the statute of limitations on sexual assaults on minors.

He also has experience of county government, having served two terms as the elected Kennebec County treasurer, starting in 1998. While there, he said, he reorganized the office and changed the way money was handled. He also oversaw the hiring of a finance director; that position still exists.

Paradis is an Augusta city councilor representing Ward 3, and because of term limits, this is the last year he can serve.

“I have a lot of respect for the other candidates,” he said, “but I want to give the voters a choice.”

While his attention as a legislator and city councilor has been focused on Augusta, Paradis said he’s familiar with the towns of District 1, thanks to his time on patrol as a volunteer with the Kennebec County Sheriff’s Office. He said he never would advocate cutting rural patrols, and he recognizes that one of the biggest issues facing Kennebec County government is corrections and the cost of supporting the county jail. Because the county cannot levy its own taxes, support falls to the property tax that county residents pay.

“There is pressure in having so many inmates,” he said. “You have to let the Legislature know how you feel on legislation that’s pending that affects corrections.”

Pease, 62, said he sees a role for county government that, if he’s elected, he would work to develop.

“County government gets underused in Maine,” Pease said. “It’s given things to do that the municipalities don’t do.”

Maine law contains a provision that allows counties to do whatever the towns want them to, and that, he said, could be the key to greater rationalization of services.

“There already exists a bureaucracy, so if two or three or more towns want to have code enforcement, the county exists as a place that could offer these services to towns,” he said.

During the three years he was Windsor’s town manager, he said, the town contracted with an animal control officer, an assessor’s agent and a code enforcement officer that all had contracts to serve several other towns as well.

“In the long run, I think that would be a cost-saving measure, but you can’t be 100 percent sure until you try it,” he said.

He said he would like to see the programs instituted at the Kennebec County jail implemented by former Sheriff Randall Liberty offering treatment and support to inmates.

In addition to his time as a town manager, Pease points to his master’s degree in public administration and his experience as a professional parliamentarian as qualifications for the job.

“I would take this job seriously,” he said, adding that some people view the county commission as a place that loyal party members go when they are getting ready to retire. “I am not accusing my opponents of this, but I would take it with a level of seriousness and professionalism that you are not going to find in people who run for those reasons.”

The term of a Kennebec County commissioner is four years. The starting pay is $10,400.

Jessica Lowell — 621-5632

jlowell@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @JLowellKJ

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