The Portland daily press., 1898-06-06
THE SHERIFF CONTEST.
All the Caucuses Now Held Excpet
Portland.

Gorham Leaves Its Vote to Its Candida
for Commissiener-The Standing to
Date.
Gorham, the last town to score in the
interesting contest over the selection OF
nominee for sheriff of Cumberland
county, departed from the custom set by
the other towns and established brano
new precedent of it's own.
1t pledged its delegates to neither can
didate for sheriff, but kindly turned
them over into the hands of Mr.. George
Z. Plaisted, who has just come into the
field as a candidate for county commits
sioner, and gave him carte blanche to use
them as will best serve his personal ends
This course was the result of compro
mise arrived at between the leaders of the
Dresser and Despeaux factions, short
time before the time for calling the
caucus. Mr.. Plaisted, who is a Gorham
farmer, and has served the town as select
man and member of the experimenting
school committee, was late in getting
into line as seeker of the office of county
commissioner, but his townsmen took
kindly to his candidacy and some of them
promised to do what they could to give
him the handling of the Gorham delega.
ton.
In consequence of the agreement, the
caucus in the Gorham town hall, Satur-
day afternoon. which had given promise
Of being grioiron affair, turned out to
be very tame.
Ex-Governor Robe presided and Mr..
Charles T. Cobb was chosen clerk.
Messrs. G. NJ Parker, E. M. Wilson and
Edward Harding were chosen tellers, but
their duties were not at all arduous, as
the voting WAS all one way.
The caucus at once proceeded to vote
for delegates to the county convention
everybody had in his hand little yellow
slip bearing the names of Charles W.
Deering, Phineas /. Paine, George r.
| Spinney, Frank L. Whitney, Solomon B.
Cloudman and Harry l.. Harding. These
| were the men selected as delegates Thsre
| was no other ticket in the field. They
received 90 votes, the total number of
| DfaltOtS GdnU.
Messrs. Isaac W. Dyer. W. j. Corthell,
| George G. Jordan, George L. Pratt,
George Fl. Heath and G. D. Prince were
| chosen delegates to the state convention
District Attorney Isaac W. Dyer moved
| that the delegates to the county conven-
| ton be instructed to use all honorable
means to further the interests OF MIR.
| George p. Plaisted. candidate for county
commissioner. The motion passed with
out opposition. The caucus then ad-
| journed without so much as mentioning
the names of the candidates for sheriff.
| After the caucus a PRESS reporter
asked one Of the delegates whether the
| delegation would be favorable to Dresser
or Despeaux.
THAT depends entirely on what Mr.
Plaisted says was the reply. 'He is to
have absolute control of the Gorham vote,
| so as to be able to help his candidacy for
commissioner 4"
! Both the Dresser and Despeaux leaders
claim Gorham's vote. though 1t goes
down in the s'unpledged" column.
CASCO FOR DESPEAUX
| AT the Republican caucus held Saturday
afternoon at Caseo, to elect delegates to
the county convention, Richard Cook
and Fred A. Dingley were chosen and
instructed to support Despeaux for sheriff.
| The vote was 70 for the Despeaux ticket
and 20 for the Dresser ticket.
THE PRESENT STANDING.
Dress Des- Buck I'm