Candidates for Sagadahoc County Sheriff Joel Merry, left, and Aaron Skolfield, right. Staff photos

Democrat Joel Merry is projected to serve a fifth term as Sagadahoc County Sheriff.

The Associated Press called the race late Wednesday morning with 89% of the results in showing Merry ahead of Sgt. Aaron Skolfield with 63% of the vote.

Skolfield conceded the race in a call Wednesday morning.

Sagadahoc County residents had to consider on Tuesday a series of criticisms cast against both candidates.

Merry and Skolfield have been called out for the agency’s failure to stop the gunman in the Lewiston mass shooting. The sheriff’s department had been warned twice about the Bowdoin man’s threats and worsening mental health before he shot and killed 18 people on Oct. 25.

The commission investigating the shooting specifically named Skolfield, who attempted a welfare check on the man, and criticized him for not using Maine’s yellow flag law to seize his guns. And while Gov. Janet Mills has stopped short of endorsing a candidate in the sheriff’s race, she hinted at a September news conference that Skolfield wasn’t fit for the role.

Skolfield has bashed the commission’s findings and said he believes it was politically motivated. In a phone interview Wednesday morning, Skolfield said he’s considering suing Mills and the commission for defamation.

He said the sheriff’s department and community were supportive of his campaign, but the public criticism cost him the win. Regardless, he said he’ll stay in his current position as sergeant.

Despite the heavy scrutiny, many voters said last month that they hadn’t heard much about either candidate. A few voters who agreed to speak to a reporter strongly supported their candidate of choice, but they shared one commonality: hoping their future sheriff will be more transparent and communicative.

“I think that those in the community that didn’t follow all the details closely and look at the evidence that was out there … were swayed by what the governor and commission had said,” Skolfield said.

Merry, who is expected to serve his fifth four-year term, didn’t immediately return calls on Wednesday morning asking to discuss the results.

Standing outside of Bowdoin Central School on Tuesday evening, 65-year-old Ken Cochran said he voted to keep Merry in office. He said, as a Navy veteran himself, he blames the military for not intervening when the gunman showed signs of deteriorating mental health, not necessarily the sheriff’s department.

“They could have done a better job, but I don’t think the information was passed back,” Cochran said.