State election officials have now completed hand-recounts in more than a half-dozen legislative races. And the results show that Democrats retained control of both chambers of the State House — but smaller majorities.
Seven of the eight recounts conducted by the Secretary of State's Office confirmed the outcomes that were initially reported by local election clerks while one tied race tipped to the Republican incumbent by a singe vote after the hand-recount.
The result is that Democrats will have a 76-73 seat advantage over Republicans in the Maine House, although two left-leaning independents could offer a bit more of a cushion. That is a significantly smaller majority than in the current legislative session, where Democrats held 79 seats compared to 67 Republicans and two independents with a handful of vacancies.
Republicans also managed to narrow the partisan gap in the Maine Senate. Democrats will control 20 of the 35 seats, compared to the current split of 22 Democrats and 13 Republicans.
Democratic candidates won five of the nine recounts conducted so far. They are:
- House District 52, where Rep. Sally Jean Cluchey defeated David Guilmette by 14 votes. The district includes part of Bowdoin as well as Bowdoinham and Richmond.
- House District 75, where Stephan Bunker defeated Randall Gauvin by seven votes. the district includes Chesterville and Farmington.
- House District 96, where Rep. Michel Lajoie defeated Kerryl Clement by 39 votes. The district includes part of Lewiston.
- House District 98, where Kilton Webb defeated Guy Lebida by 55 votes. The district includes Durham and Pownal and parts of Bowdoin, Topsham and Lisbon.
- Senate District 8, where Sen. Mike Tipping defeated Leo Kenney by 132 votes. The district includes parts of central, northern and eastern Penobscot County.
Republicans, meanwhile, emerged victorious over their Democratic opponents in two recounts. They are:
- House District 81, where Peter Wood defeated Joan Beal by 24 votes. The District includes Greenwood, Norway, Stoneham, Stow, Sweden, Waterford and Albany Twp.
- House District 141, where Rep. Lucas Lanigan defeated Patricia Kidder by a single vote in a race that had been tied, based on the initial results reported to the Secretary of State's Office. The district includes Newfield, Shapleigh and part of Sanford. Democratic leaders have called on Lanigan to resign the seat, however, because he was charged with aggravated domestic violence assault for allegedly assaulting his wife several weeks before the election.
One independent, Sharon Frost, defeated Republican Daniel Newman by 43 votes in House District 58, which includes Belgrade, Fayette, Mt. Vernon, New Sharon, Rome and Vienna.
A recount has yet to be conducted in the House District 44 race, where independent Rep. William Pluecker leads his Republican opponent, Ray Thombs, in the contest to represent Hope, Warren and Union in the Maine House. That recount has yet to be scheduled, however, and Pluecker's 362-vote lead will likely be difficult for Thombs to overcome given the fact that most recounts only shift the needle by a few votes in either direction.
The losing candidates in Senate District 14 in Kennebec County and House District 142 in York County initially asked for recounts but subsequently dropped those requests.
State election officials plan to begin a much larger hand-recount in Maine's 2nd Congressional District race next Monday. Democratic Congressman Jared Golden defeated Republican challenger Austin Theriault by roughly 2,700 votes — out of more than 400,000 ballots cast — following a ranked-choice tabulation on Nov. 15. Theriault's campaign immediately requested the recount, which will take several weeks to complete.
