Somerset County races feature upsets, close calls in vote tallies

SKOWHEGAN – Upsets and extremely close races were rife Wednesday morning in Somerset County when the final votes were tallied. By noon Wednesday, it was clear that the Democrats had swept the county commissioners, but the Republicans took all House and Senate seats in the county.

All tallies are unofficial amounts, provided by individual town clerks.

Doug Thomas of Ripley, a Republican selectman, won the legislative District 24 seat, beating Democratic challenger David Clukey by 341 votes.

Redistricting resulted in two veteran legislators – Democrat Pamela Hatch of Skowhegan and Republican Peter Mills of Cornville – vying for the House District 26 seat. Mills won by just 246 votes, with a final count of 8,905 for Hatch and 9,151 for Mills.

Redistricting also changed the makeup of state Senate District 25, where incumbent Democrat Kenneth Gagnon was challenged by Republican Bruce Stafford of Winslow. With more than 11,000 votes cast, the race was tight, with Stafford coming out the leader by 593 votes.

In House District 28, veteran Republican legislator Vaughn Stedman defeated challenger Joseph Scozzafava, with 2,351 votes to 1,292.

In House District 29, two Pittsfield men went head to head. Republican Stacey Fitts defeated John Ring by 489 votes.

Republican Phil Roy of Fairfield, vying for the District 2 county commissioner’s seat, was defeated by incumbent Zane Libby by only five votes, while Democrat Tracey Rotondi, a veteran commissioner in District 1 who is the current chairman, was defeated by Richard Dunphy by 304 votes.

The spread was a bit larger in District 3, where Commissioner Paul Hatch, a former Democratic legislator from Skowhegan, defeated another former legislator, Republican Sumner Jones of Pittsfield, by 413 votes.

County Treasurer Andrea Reichart, a Republican from New Portland, was defeated by incumbent Louise Greenier of Canaan, by more than 2,000 votes.