LEWISTON — Mayoral candidate Ben Chin and his supporters plan to fill the next eight months with meetings, house parties and a process designed to figure out what residents want.

“The first thing this campaign does is we are going to mail every single person in Lewiston a letter asking them what they want for the future of this city,” Chin told a group of 50 supporters Thursday night in a room at the B Street Community Center on Birch Street. “If you have big ideas for our city that I didn’t mention, the next thing you get to do is say that. So stick around.”

Chin is a Bates College graduate and a leader at Trinity Church. He works as the political director for the Maine People’s Alliance, a left-leaning political group.

He’s running against conservative Mayor Robert Macdonald, whose second term ends this year.

Chin said he initially was going to go to seminary after graduating college but that changed in 2004 when then City Administrator Jim Bennett announced the Heritage Initiative, which included a plan to build a new boulevard connecting the downtown with the Maine Turnpike. It would have removed dozens of downtown apartment buildings.

“He told us it was a done deal,” Chin said. “But instead of rolling over, a bunch of people got together in this very room and refused to take no after an answer. After a year, we won, and that’s what caused me to trade the seminary for work as a community organizer.”

Chin outlined his priorities: improving housing for seniors and targeting downtown slumlords and improving the schools. He vowed to fight for a better share of state funding for education, as well.

“Two years ago, the governor found half a billion dollars to pay back a debt to the hospitals simply because they demanded it over and over again,” Chin said. “It’s time Lewiston had a mayor just as unrelenting in the cause for our children’s future.”

Chin is the first person to signal his attention to run for a city seat this year, and he’s very early, according to City Clerk Kathy Montejo.

Nominating petitions for mayor and the 15 other municipal seats up for election Nov. 3 won’t even become available until mid-July.

“It’s always mid-July, and they are due around Labor Day,” Montejo said. “They’ll have half of July and all of August to circulate their papers.”

All seats for the City Council and School Committee are open this November. That includes the mayor, councilors for all seven wards, School Committee members for all seven wards and the at-large School Committee seat.

According to the Lewiston City Charter’s term-limit rules, mayors can serve up to three two-year terms.

Macdonald said Thursday he’s planning to seek a third term, but won’t start his campaign for several months. It’s going to be a long enough campaign as it is, he said.

“We don’t know now how many people are going to even run at this point,” Macdonald said. “We could have several people come in and get on the ballot. And then you could have a runoff, too.”

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