Official New England 2014 Megathread

[Kevinstat]

There's a special election in Senate District 19 (which will become Senate District 23 next year (it was unchanged in this spring's redistricting, except for the number) today, caused by the resignation in July (announced in June) of then Senate Majority Leader Seth Goodall (D-Richmond), who is now the New England administrator for the U.S. Small Business Administration.  The Republicans nominated former (2006-2008) State Senator Paula Benoit (R-Phippsburg), seemingly the strongest candidate they could field (former (2010-2012) State Treasurer Bruce Poliquin (R-Georgetown), who's now running for Congress in ME-02 where he doesn't live right now (he announced on talk radio and wouldn't talk to the other press that whole day) teased with running, but that's definitely a good thing for the Republicans).

House Majority Leader Seth Berry (D-Bowdoinham), who is termed out of the House in 2014 mulled running, but decided to serve out his term in the House and as Majority Leader.  He and Goodall both endorsed both endorsed Eloise Vitelli (D-Arrowsic), the program and policy director of what sounds like a women's-centered vocational support/economic development group.  She beat out two other Democrats for the "caucus" nomination (it's technically a meeting of the members of county committees who live in the district, but some county committees like the Kennebec Dems allow enrolled Democrats to be voted in before the meeting or at a pre-meeting that same day so it functions more like a caucus; I'm not sure how it worked in this contest) , seemingly with ease.  (Benoit also had what seemed like a token intra-party challenger).

There's also a Green Independent candidate, Daniel Stromgren (G-Topsham), the only candidate from that side of Merrymeeting Bay (you have to leave Sagadahoc County to drive from one part of the county to the other; the presence of Dresden in the district makes it functionally contiguous but I'm sure campaign volunteers have regularly passed through Brunswick).  I volunteered for Vitelli the Saturday before last and the woman I was working with picked up one of his flyers that had blown onto the road.  He sounded like a Republican.  One of my aunts was at the meeting where he was nominated (my dad grew up in Bowdoinham) and she said his criticism of the Maine People's Allaince (a progressive issue advocacy group in Maine that also gets involved in elections) was just about big money, but it didn't seem like from the flyer.  So he might sway some marginal voters to vote for Benoit while taking votes from progressives (who might not realize he's kind of attacking them) because he's a Green!  I called my three aunts who live in the district (all left of center) and gave tried to get them to support Vitelli.  I definitely didn't convert the aunt referenced above, but my conversation with the one who shares a driveway with her seemed promising.  The third aunt was somewhat in the middle - pretty much the order I expected.

I have two cousins and one of their wives who live in the district, but one of them is the daughter of the intractable Green aunt.  I kind of wish I had called my other cousin and his wife as we get along very well, but it's different asking your cousin to vote for someone than your aunt who can't really get bothered with their sweet nephew - not that that's always the case I know, but you know what I mean.  I thought about calling my cousin and his wife while I was writing this at around 7:30 but decided not to.  It's now 11 minutes to closing time so it's doubtful whether they would make it in time if they hadn't voted yet.  Okay, I'm done writing about this.  I'll let you know the results if they're in before I go to bed tonight.

[Kevinstat]

Vitelli (D) won, according to unofficial results with all precincts in, with 4,621 votes (49.60%*) to Benoit (R)'s 4,339 (46.57%) to Stromgren's 357 (3.83%), a margin of 282 votes (3.03%).  Vitelli's best town was Arrowsic, which isn't surprising as it's both her hometown and a noted Democratic stronghold (people referred to it as the "People's Republic of Arrowsic" back in the 70s and 80s) when much of that part of Maine was a lot more Republican than it is today.  She won 69.57% to 28.02% there, although that only netted her 86 votes (Arrowsic is the smallest town in the district).  Interestingly, Benoit's best town was not her hometown of Phippsburg (which she carried 54.47% to 43.99%) but Bowdoin in the far end of the district (which she carried 55.13% to 41.20%).  Bowdoin doesn't seem particularly Republican, although it is the furthest town from Arrowsic and the one town on that side of Merrymeeting Bay other than Topsham which is less out of the way that isn't the hometown of either Seth Goodall or Seth Berry.

Stromgren's best town was Richmond (8.42%) which does have a strong Green presence.  He got 4.92% in his hometown of Topsham where one of the Green Party founders I believe, John Rensenbrink (sp?) is from (he ran as in Independent for U.S. Senate in 1996 as the Greens had ballot access at the time (which they later lost and regained) but there were some complications getting enough Greens registered to allow him to get enough signatures from them alone to get on the primary ballot).

Turnout "far exceed[ed] expectations" (it was pegged at 31.92% of registered voters (whenever that registered voter data was from) according to a Bangor Daily News Table that's no longer there, at least not where it was).

*For percentages, I'm not counting blank ballots (the state does now in its official results, although perhaps not for determining recount cost, but I'm sure there aren't enough blank ballots to push Vitelli's margin under 2% and the next threshold margin is 4% which her margin is under already - not that I expect Benoit to request a recount) or any write-in votes of which I probably won't be aware until the official results are posted on the Maine Elections Division's website which might take a month or two (maybe not for a solitary special election though).

[Kevinstat]

Vitelli's win puts the Maine Senate back at 19 D, 15 R and 1 Indy.  The Maine House is now 89 D, 58 R and 4 Unenrolled (the "official" term for Independent voters in Maine).  2 of the 4 Unenrolled members the House identify as "Independent" while the others are just listed as "Unenrolled".  One of the 4 (one of the 2 "Independents"), a former Republican representative, caucuses with the Ds or at least did at the beginning of the session.  The others also have ties with either the Democrats or the Greens, one having served for 8 years previously as a Democrat, one having run as a Democrat before and one having been involved with the Greens in some form or another (and he represents a district on the Portland Peninsula where the Greens would probably field a candidate if they didn't feel he was one of them).

[Kevinstat]

The Republican nominee sounded like a sore loser.  See the video here (starting at around 0:53).