Maine State Representative Lois Galgay Reckitt (D-South Portland) died on October 30. No special election has been called yet (the South Portland City Council would have to send a letter to the Governor asking her to call a special election, which will probably happen since there's over a year left on her term and the special election could coincide with Maine's Presidential Primary on March 5 (while such a date might benefit Republicans the seat is rock-solid D nowadays; it's on the northeast end of South Portland while it's the western end that used to sometimes elect Republicans into the mid-2000s (decade)). Also, terms beginning on or after the third Wednesday in June of the odd year (so in the last ~73% of a term considering that terms start on the first Wednesday in December after the election) no longer count as terms for term-limits purposes under a law change enacted this year, so there's no reason why a prospective successor (and Rep. Reckitt or Galgay Reckitt (not sure if it was a dual but non-hyphenated last name or if she just liked to have her middle (and maiden) name shown on documents and such) would have been term-limited next year so people may already have been planning to run) wouldn't want to get into office sooner.
The heading of the article is not entirely accurate, as there was already going to be an election for the seat (and all 186 "full fledged" (my own terminology)* Legislative seats) in November 2024, and that's the only election there will be for that seat in November. This isn't a New York State or Texas congressional district.
The short time frame between when the election would most likely have been (March 5, coinciding with the Democratic and Republican presidential primaries in Maine) and the statutory end of the Second Regular Session of the 131st Maine Legislature (terms were for only one year until the one elected in 1880 apart from seemingly one 2-year term in the 1840s, which is how the Maine Legislature got ahead of the U.S. Congress in terms of the number of the terms) was cited as a main reason in the City Council vote against requesting that a special election be scheduled, as well as the cost involved in printing the special election ballots even if the state would pay for that, which councilors didn't seem sure about. It's an uber-safe D seat. It was the other end of South Portland which was competitive back in the 1990s and 2000s (decade), but even it seems safe D nowadays.
*Maine also has largely non-voting seats (although preferences in the committees they sit in are noted) for the Penobscot Nation, Passamaquoddy Tribe and the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, but elections for those seats in tribal council or whatever are likely held on a different day. As it turns out, the Penobscot and the Maliseet (the latter of whom only got their seat in late 2011 or early 2012) have left their seats unfilled in protest of what they see as unfair treatment by the state. The Passamaquoddy had joined the Penobscot in the initial withdrawal of their representatives in May 2015 several years ago, but they appointed a member following the 2016 elections and the Maliseet chose not to appoint a member after the 2018 elections and from then on.
(Portland Press Herald)
Special election set to fill House District 122 seat (Secretary of State's Office press release on the election being scheduled and the various deadlines)
Party committee (D/R/Green/Libertarian) "caucus" paperwork/non-party candidate petition (50 signatures needed) deadline: 5:00 p.m. on Friday, December 29, 2023
Write-in candidate deadline (for a "declaration of write-in candidacy", without which votes cast for you are counted as blanks): 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, January 3, 2024
Election date: Tuesday, March 5, 2024 (coincident with Maine's Democratic and Republican Presidential Primary elections)
It appears that everyone assumed the order on last week's meeting would be passed, and so no one actually contacted them urging them to pass it while someone did speak on the other side at last week's meeting. But when it became known that the Council had voted to leave the seat vacant, residents of the vacant House districts and others in the city, including other members of the South Portland legislative delegation, started contacting City Councilors, who reversed course in a 6-1 (although the Mayor reported it as 5 to 1, like he's able to vote at the same time as the other Councilors but his vote only is only counted officially if it breaks a tie).
If you have like 70 minutes to kill and want to see how municipal government discussions of special elections go in Maine's fourth largest city (26,498 people as of and according to the 2020 census), you can view recordings of the
December 5, 2023 meeting (relevant portion from 26:05 to 36:26) and the
December 12, 2023 meeting (relevant portion from to 1:01 to 58:05).
