Local Spotlight: Dick Lambert

A lot of people pay close attention to political elections, but people like Dick Lambert pay extra, extra close attention to elections, especially those that are held in his hometown of Biddeford.

For nearly eight years, Lambert has served as a citizen journalist for the Associated Press. During each election, Lambert earns a modest stipend to collect and report the results of local, state and even national races in Biddeford. This year, he will collect tabulations from several referendum question as well as state legislative races and even federal races such as this year’s contest between Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump.

“I don’t really do any reporting or analysis,” Lambert explained. “I just gather the numbers and call them into a national center. That’s it. It’s kind of fun.”

Lambert has a long history of being involved in local and state politics. Although he recently retired as Saco’s Code Enforcement Officer, Lambert also has a little bit of experience in journalism.

“I wrote for the school newspaper at Biddeford High School,” he said. “I remember writing a story about the mayoral election between Gil Boucher and Lucien ‘Babe’ Dutremble. I just can’t remember the name of the paper (laughs), but I did think it was really interesting.”

Lambert turned 68 on the same day that we met for this interview. He describes himself as someone who was “born, raised and never left Biddeford.”

He graduated from Biddeford High School in 1974, and was very involved in Boy Scouts, which only further cemented his interest in politics.

“I remember working on my citizenship in community merit badge, which meant that I had to be involved in my community,” he said. “I remember working in what used to be called the city welfare department. I would help stock the shelves with surplus food that we received from the federal government: cheese, flour, peanut butter and even corn syrup.”

Lambert had only been out of high school for a few weeks, and he clearly remembers watching President Nixon resign from office.

“By that time, I had really caught the political bug,” he said. “I was an idealist with big ideas, and I decided to run for the city council.”

You were a teenager when you were elected to the city council. You and former mayor Alan Casavant were really young and considered by the old-timers to sort of be rabble rousers.

(Laughs) “Those were interesting times. Back then, there were not partisan elections, per se. Various people ran on tickets. I was one of those running on Babe Dutremble’s ticket.

“I didn’t realize it when I joined the ticket, but it seemed like he had so many relatives. (Laughs) ‘Everybody seemed to be related to the Dutrembles. At first, I thought I was going to run for an at-large seat because I didn’t want to run against Dan Boucher who was my councilman in Ward Three, and he was supporting Gil Boucher.

“Dan decided not to seek reelection, so I ended up running for the Ward Three seat against Pris Gagnon – talk about a small world – whose daughter turned out to become my administrative assistant in the Saco Code office.

You were a building inspector for almost four years in Biddeford before going to work in Saco.

“At the time, Biddeford’s approach to code enforcement was: you issue building permits, collect the money and don’t make any trouble. You know, don’t rock the boat, don’t cause any controversy -- and certainly don’t go after my political friends.

“The only resources we had as a building inspector were miniscule. No hard hats. No tape measures. Really no tools to do the job.”

You spent 35 years as Saco’s Code Enforcement Officer and retired during the height of the Covid pandemic.

‘Yes, things certainly changed over the years. But I always saw my job as helping people come up with solutions that would fit the city’s zoning and ordinances. You had to be creative, but I enjoyed the job because I was able to directly impact the plans and goals of people in the community.”

After retiring four years ago, you and your wife began playing ukuleles.

“It’s a long story, but we both enjoy music. After I retired, we had quite a bit of extra time on our hands, and it was during Covid, when a lot of things shut down.

“Today, we are part of a southern Maine group called FLUKES – Fun Loving Ukulele Society. It used to be the Freeport Library Ukulele Society, but we stopped meeting there, and had to come up with a new name.

You ended up becoming a bit disillusioned with local politics.

“I ended up parting ways with Babe Dutremble. Of course, back then I didn’t know how to build coalitions or do the horse trading that was pretty much necessary. There was a young reporter at the Press Herald – Sid Leavitt—and he did several articles about me because I was always pushing against the grain. I didn’t feel like I was getting any support from the mayor.

“I wanted to change our city charter and modernize things that I considered antiquated. We had a part-time, appointed finance director. I wanted to push for non-partisan elections. I thought we needed a new fire department building because the one on Washington Street was in disrepair. But all of my ideas were more or less rebuffed at the time.

“It’s funny, looking back now, many of my ideas became reality. I just didn’t know how to build political support.”

Do you expect a big local turnout in the next election?

“Oh absolutely. I’m a little nervous about how long it’s going to take for us to get the numbers, especially when you consider how delayed the process was last year for just a local election.

“I think both parties – Republicans and Democrats – have energized their base. I think there are more people paying attention to this election. Both sides feel that electing the other side would be a threat to democracy.”

Last year, we had only one contested seat on the city council. This year, most of our legislative races are basically unopposed. Why are people becoming less likely to serve in public office?

“I think social media is a big part of that. Who wants to serve for office, and then have to see so many people saying negative things about you, your family online? Who wants to put up with that?

“There’s just so much meanness out there. It can get downright ugly, and I think it causes many people to just stand on the sidelines.”

Randy Seaver is a freelance writer living in Biddeford. He is a former newspaper reporter and editor and is the principal of a small strategic communications firm. He can be contacted at randy@randyseaver.com.