Oxford Republicans choose Turner as county commissioner candidate

PARIS — Buckfield resident and former Maine State Trooper Timothy Turner will vie for the open county commissioners’s seat in November after being elected by the Republican caucus Monday night.

Turner, a self-described fiscal Republican, will face Democratic candidate Lee Holman of Hartford in the general election on Nov. 4 for a three-year term as the District 3 commissioner.

District 3 includes the towns of Buckfield, Hebron, Oxford, Otisfield, Paris, West Paris, Woodstock, Hartford and Sumner.

Turner defeated former Oxford County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Jim Davis 16 votes to 3.

If elected, Turner vowed to spend tax dollars carefully.

“Every penny you earn is yours; each dollar is a responsibility. The money doesn’t belong to (the commissioner); it’s somebody elses’,” Turner said.

Republicans convened a special meeting of the caucus following the departure of candidate Diane Jackson, who withdrew from the race two weeks ago.

A month and a half after entering the race for her husband’s Oxford County commissioner’s seat, Jackson, 59, was hired by the Department of Economic and Community Development, a position which barred her candidacy.

Husband Caldwell Jackson is the current chairman and a two-term commissioner, but is unable to seek re-election due to his position with the state.

Diane Jackson was the second county commissioner candidate to be elected in the June primaries to have withdrawn from the race. Earlier this month, Democratic candidate Terry Hayes announced she was withdrawing to take a position with the campaign for gubernatorial candidate Eliot Cutler of Cape Elizabeth.

Chairman of the Oxford County Republicans, Turner currently works as the Assistant Director of Security at Sunday River. He spent 14 years working for the Maine State Police patrolling Oxford County and working as a crash re-constructionist and K-9 unit handler.

In his nomination speech, Caldwell Jackson praised Turner as being “very involved” in local politics.

“He’ll be a very good choice come November,” he said.