Lewiston voters will have a crowded choice for mayor this November, with five candidates, including incumbent Mayor Carl Sheline, a former city council president, a longtime businessman and a perennial candidate, qualifying for the ballot in a race that could become a referendum on the direction of Maine’s second-largest city.
According to the city’s candidate list for the Nov. 3 municipal election, Brian R. Beaulieu, Ricky R. LaChapelle, Jay A. Rodrigue, Carl L. Sheline and Charles A. Soule have qualified to run for mayor.
The five-way contest comes at a consequential moment for Lewiston.
The city continues to wrestle with youth gun violence and repeat juvenile offenders, housing and homelessness, property taxes, economic development and the lingering effects of the October 2023 mass shooting. Immigration enforcement has also emerged as a divisive local issue after federal immigration operations earlier this year put Lewiston at the center of a national debate.
The election will determine whether voters give Sheline another term or turn City Hall over to one of four challengers with markedly different political and professional backgrounds.
Carl Sheline: The Incumbent
Sheline enters the race with by far the highest public profile of the five candidates.
An entrepreneur who founded the Munka coworking space in downtown Lewiston, Sheline has served as mayor since January 2022. He was first elected in 2021 and narrowly won reelection in a December 2023 runoff against former Republican state Rep. Jon Connor.
That contest was close.
Sheline defeated Connor by just 122 votes, receiving 2,391 votes, or 51.3 percent, compared with Connor’s 2,269 votes, or 48.7 percent.
Sheline’s current term runs through January 2027. The mayor’s office is officially nonpartisan.
According to his city biography, Sheline has lived in Lewiston for more than a decade and previously worked as an office manager for a multi-site health care organization. He has served on numerous community boards and organizations, including the Lewiston Auburn Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, Central Maine Community College Foundation, Maine Music Society and the Maine Municipal Association Legislative Policy Committee.
His tenure has also coincided with some of the most difficult years in Lewiston’s recent history.
Sheline was mayor during the October 2023 mass shooting that killed 18 people, becoming one of the city’s principal public faces during the tragedy and its aftermath.
More recently, Sheline has become one of Maine’s most vocal municipal critics of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts.
When federal immigration authorities launched “Operation Catch of the Day” in Maine earlier this year, Sheline accused ICE of employing “terror and intimidation tactics” and said federal agents were causing lasting damage to the community. Federal officials defended the operation as a public-safety initiative aimed at enforcing immigration law and apprehending criminal offenders.
After the large-scale operation was wound down, Sheline called the development welcome news and said ICE’s operations had failed to improve public safety.
His handling of City Council meetings has also drawn controversy, including clashes over public comment and meeting decorum.
Meanwhile, violent crime, particularly shootings involving juveniles, has emerged as one of the most pressing issues facing city government.
Sheline and then City Council President David Chittim called a special public meeting in June focused on youth gun violence after mounting concern from residents and city officials. More than 150 people attended the meeting, which included presentations from Police Chief Carly Conley, District Attorney Neil McLean Jr., school officials and representatives of the Maine Department of Corrections. Sheline set no benchmarks after that meeting and has been very quiet on the issue, since. Â
Those issues are likely to follow Sheline onto the campaign trail.
Ricky LaChapelle: Former Council President and Republican State Senate Candidate
LaChapelle brings perhaps the most extensive electoral and municipal experience among Sheline’s challengers.
He previously represented Ward 4 on the Lewiston City Council and served as council president. He has also served on the Lewiston School Committee and a lengthy list of municipal boards and committees.
During a 2021 City Council campaign, LaChapelle listed his occupation as retail sales and real estate developer and cited previous service on the Auburn-Lewiston Municipal Airport Board of Directors, the mayor’s Housing Committee, Lewiston School Committee, Lewiston Bicentennial Committee, Zoning Board of Appeals and Citizens Advisory Committee.
LaChapelle has also ventured into state politics.
In 2022, he was the Republican nominee for Maine Senate District 21, challenging Democratic Sen. Peggy Rotundo. He lost the general election.
He returned to the ballot in 2025, running for the Ward 4 seat on the Lewiston School Committee. City campaign-finance records confirm that candidacy.
His mayoral bid now gives Lewiston voters a candidate who has served inside city government but stands outside the current administration.
Jay Rodrigue: Lewiston Businessman Enters Political Arena
Jay Rodrigue enters the mayoral contest with a business background rather than the extensive elected-government résumé of Sheline or LaChapelle.
Rodrigue has operated appliance businesses in Lewiston, including Jay’s Small Engine & Appliance Service.
Court records from a previous business dispute identify Rodrigue as conducting an appliance business in Lewiston, while business records list him as the owner of Jay’s Small Engine & Appliance Service.
Rodrigue’s business has previously attracted media attention.
In 2019, WGME’s I-Team reported on a customer’s dispute involving an appliance purchased from Jay’s Small Engine and Appliance, which the station identified as being owned by Rodrigue.
Compared with Sheline and LaChapelle, however, Rodrigue has a relatively limited public political record. His candidacy could therefore give voters an option coming primarily from the private sector rather than Lewiston’s established municipal political structure.
Charles Soule: A Familiar Name on Lewiston Ballots
For longtime Lewiston voters, Charles Soule needs little introduction.
Soule has repeatedly sought public office in the city and has been running for mayor for years.
When Soule sought the mayor’s office in 2019, News Center Maine described it as his eighth campaign for mayor. He said at the time that one of his primary concerns was the city’s school system.
He finished third that year with 169 votes as Mark Cayer defeated Tim Lajoie to win the mayor’s office.
Soule also ran for mayor in 2017, presenting himself as an anti-establishment candidate and arguing that elected officials already serving in city government were part of Lewiston’s problems.
He hasn’t stopped running.
Soule mounted a declared write-in campaign for mayor in 2023 and then ran for the Ward 3 City Council seat in 2025. City campaign-finance records document both campaigns.
His 2026 candidacy puts him back on familiar ground — challenging Lewiston’s political establishment from the outside.
Brian Beaulieu: A New Name in the Mayoral Field
Brian R. Beaulieu is the least politically documented candidate in the five-person field.
The candidate filing identifies Beaulieu as a Lewiston resident but searches of municipal election records and local news archives turned up little evidence of previous elected service or a major campaign for public office.
That makes Beaulieu something of an unknown as the race begins.
His presence on the ballot, however, adds another challenger to an election in which the anti-incumbent vote could potentially be divided among several candidates.
A Five-Way Race with Big Issues Ahead
Lewiston’s mayoral election is officially nonpartisan, but the race is unfolding against a politically charged backdrop.
Sheline has increasingly taken prominent positions on issues extending beyond traditional municipal government, particularly federal immigration enforcement.
At home, however, voters are also dealing with concerns much closer to City Hall.
Youth gun violence has prompted packed public meetings and demands for action. City officials are debating how to respond to repeat juvenile offenders. Residents continue to raise concerns about taxes, housing, homelessness, downtown development and public safety.
And Lewiston is still navigating the long-term recovery from the October 2023 shootings.
The crowded ballot creates another potentially important dynamic.
Sheline won his last election by only 122 votes after the mayoral race went to a runoff. With four challengers now seeking to unseat him, the distribution of votes among the five candidates could become as important as the individual candidates themselves.
For Sheline, the campaign offers voters a judgment on nearly five years of leadership through crisis, political division and rapid change.
For LaChapelle, it represents a return to the center of Lewiston politics after previous service on the council and an unsuccessful run for the state Senate.
Rodrigue and Beaulieu offer voters candidates with substantially less history inside Lewiston City Hall, while Soule is once again making his longstanding argument for an alternative to the city’s political establishment.
Between now and Nov. 3, the question for Lewiston voters will be which of those visions they want leading the city through its next chapter.
I’ll pick # 6
Carl was office manager fir his wife’s dental practice. He treated employees horribly. Talk about twisting the truth.
122 votes, oh to be a fly on the wall!
Ashley Webb is a better qualified than Frumpy Carl.