Mark Holbrook, a conservative professional counselor from Brunswick, has emerged as the apparent winner in Maine’s 1st District Republican primary, securing his party’s nomination by a mere 55 votes.
Holbrook says he was notified of his unofficial victory Thursday evening by Maine Secretary of State Matt Dunlap.
“They called at ten minutes of five and explained that all of the results were in and that they had certified them and the official number was that I had won by 55 votes,” he says.
Holbrook credited his staff with propelling him across the finish line.
“We have a bunch of volunteers who have lives and other things that they were doing, but everybody was working their rear ends off and this is a big deal,” he says.
Ande Allen Smith, a lawyer and former nuclear submarine engineer officer, plans to ask for a recount. He is expected to hold a press conference on the matter at 1:30 p.m. Friday at the State House in Augusta.
More than 90 percent of the communities used machines to tabulate the ballots, a method that Dunlap says has always produced a high level of confidence in the initial outcome.
Holbrook says he will now plan to focus his campaign on the November elections with the goal of unseating incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree.