FARMINGTON – Incumbent candidates representing Franklin County residents in the state House and Senate races will be returning to Augusta for another term after elections were held Tuesday.
Republican Thomas Saviello of Wilton easily won another term in state Senate District 17 race, which represents all of Franklin County plus four Kennebec County towns, by a vote of 12,246 to 4,732 to defeat Democratic challenger Joanne Dunlap of Rangeley Plantation.
Dunlap won in Sandy River Plantation but nowhere else, with Saviello racking up significant margins in Farmington, Wilton, Strong and Jay. The above totals are complete except for Vienna, which has not reported results as of this hour.
As previously reported, Republican candidate Andy Buckland won District 133, defeating Democratic candidate Ed David by roughly 350 votes in Farmington and New Sharon.
Democrat Paul Gilbert of Jay was reelected for another term in House District 74, representing the towns of Jay, Livermore Falls and part of Livermore, defeating Republican challenger C. Harvey Calden of Jay. Residents of Jay voted 2 to 1 in favor of Gilbert, with the district’s other towns supporting the incumbent by similar margins. Gilbert won with a total of 2,550 votes to Calden’s 1,340 votes.
Incumbent Republican Russell Black of Wilton won another term in House District 114, representing the towns of Strong, Temple, New Vineyard, Industry, Wilton and Chesterville. He defeated Democratic challenger Guy Iverson of Chesterville by a combined vote of 2,773 to 1,263.
Iverson took his hometown of Chesterville by seven votes, 307 to 300, but lost everywhere else. Black’s widest margin was in Wilton, where he won by more than 900 votes, making up more than half of his 1,500 margin of victory.
Newcomers Democrat Jack Frost of Anson and Republican Thomas Skolfield of Weld ran for the State House District 112, representing the Franklin County towns of Carrabassett Valley, Sandy River Plantation, Kingfield, Phillips, Avon, Weld, Carthage and Somerset towns of New Portland, Anson and Starks.
With all Franklin County towns and Anson, Starks and New Portland reporting, preliminary results indicate Skolfield has been elected to the State House. He received 1,470 votes to Frost’s 863 in Franklin County. While Frost made up some ground in Somerset County, including winning his hometown of Anson by more than 100 votes and taking Somerset County by a little more than 200 votes, he was unable to close the gap for the win.
Final, unofficial results for House District 112 are: Frost with 1,778 votes and Skolfield with 2,168.
Wide-ranging District 117, which includes the four Franklin County communities of Eustis, Coplin Plantation, Rangeley and Rangeley Plantation, is more tightly contested, with Republican Frances Head of Bethel currently showing a 300-vote lead over Democrat Callie Pecunies of Albany Township with two communities yet to report in. Head took all of Franklin County by a total of 228 votes, winning Rangeley by more than 120 votes.
Why hasn’t the Bulldog reported the county positions that were up for election? I know most had no opponents but it would be nice to see the numbers.