The mainstream gubernatorial hopefuls better watch their hind quarters – the fangs are now out in Maine’s hottest political race.
“Independent” John Glowa, 71, of South China, the most recent candidate to add his name to the growing list of 2026 wannabes, founded the Maine Wolf Coalition.
Glowa worked for the Maine Department of Environmental Protection as an environmental specialist from 1987 until 2016, according to his campaign website.
He then retired and ran as a Democrat for state representative, and then for a seat in the state senate.
In his role with the coalition, which advocates for wolf recovery in the northeast, Glowa has accused state wildlife officials of deliberately downplaying evidence of wolves’ presence in the state.
“The Unwavering Wolf Truther Who Would Be Maine’s Next Governor,” was the way Down East maggie billed Glowa in a 2022 piece on his political ambitions.
So his designs on the Blaine House are not necessarily a passing fancy, unlike his fair-weather allegiance to a major political party.
Glowa ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat in 2022 – he failed to qualify for the ballot – and told TownLine.org three months ago he didn’t get it out of his system.
“Americans are fed up with politics in general and mutually destructive partisan politics in particular,” he howled, adding:
“Maine doesn’t need a politician in the Blaine House. Maine needs a true leader, and I believe I have the education, experience, and skill set to be that leader.”
Though he claims eschewing politics, his decision to abandon running in his former party belies that claim. He’s not the first Maine Democrat to switch to “independent” to try to avoid losing a primary. (Think Angus King.)
Glowa became interested in protecting wolves as a teenager after seeing the documentary, “Wolves and the Wolf Men.”
“Glowa watched the documentary and was moved, particularly by its graphic scenes of people shooting wolves out of a helicopter in Alaska,” according to Down East.
In the early 1990s, after a hunter in northern Maine shot a protected wolf, Glowa said he was ignored when he called state wildlife officials to ask what they were doing to prevent wolf killings.
