Mark Brown, four incumbents win Mohegan Tribal Council seats
Mohegan — Four incumbents and a former long-serving member of the Mohegan Tribal Council won election to the nine-member body in voting among tribal members that ended Sunday, according to tribal sources who asked not to be identified.
The tribe offered no comment on the results of the election, which concluded Sunday after weeks of voting by secret ballot.
Reelected were incumbents James Gessner Jr., the chairman; Sarah Harris, the vice chairwoman; William Quidgeon Jr. and Ken Davison, and former Chairman Mark Brown, who served six consecutive terms on the council from 1995 to 2019. He was chairman from 2000 to 2005.
Incumbent Kathy Regan-Pyne did not seek reelection.
The council oversees tribal government and serves as the management board of Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment, which operates the tribe’s gaming enterprises, including Mohegan Sun, its flagship casino.
“It’s exciting to be back,” Brown said Monday. “I’ve served with all the incumbents in the past or known them for a number of years.”
Brown said he believes Mohegan Gaming is headed in a positive direction following a “glitch,” a reference to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused casinos to temporarily shut down for a period in 2020 and has affected business volumes since then.
“Clearly, we suffered through the worst of it, but we’re going forward,” he said.
Brown lost a bid for a seventh consecutive term on the council in August 2019 and less than four months later won a special election to fill a seat vacated by his brother, Kevin Brown, who had resigned following an ethics investigation. Mark Brown’s special-election victory, by a single vote, was later invalidated. In a do-over, held March 15, 2020, he lost to Davison.
“Everything happens for a reason,” Brown said. “I lost just as the doors were about to close (due to the pandemic). It was probably good timing for me.”
The five newly elected candidates will begin their terms in October, at which time officers will be elected.
The other council members whose seats were not up for election are Thayne Hutchins Jr., the treasurer; Joseph Soper, John Harris and Patricia LaPierre.
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