AUGUSTA – In an unmistakable example that State House politics can sometimes assume Middle Eastern overtones, a number of Republicans were secretly hoping Senate Democrats would elect Sen. John L. Martin as their president to force the majority party a little farther to the right.

“Martin is, by far, the most conservative Democrat over there,” said one GOP senator Wednesday who asked to remain unidentified. “It’s sort of a case of ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend.'”

Eleven years ago, Martin, of Eagle Lake, was vilified by Republicans who perceived him as a partisan, heavy-handed Democratic speaker of the House, a position he held for more than two decades. A 1992 ballot-tampering incident involving one of his aides sparked a storm of protest that precipitated Maine’s legislative term limits and signaled Martin’s fall from leadership.

But after a two-year break, Martin returned to Augusta in 2001, this time as a senator. He was re-elected to a third term in that chamber just two weeks ago, and during a meeting of Senate Democrats Tuesday evening in Waterville, sought the leadership post. In a second run-off vote, Senate Democrats chose Sen. Beth Edmonds of Freeport over Martin as their choice for presiding officer.

With the conclusion of a ballot recount in Bangor’s Senate District 32 Wednesday, Democrats were given a clear-cut 18-17 majority over Republicans in the Senate. Barring the unlikely emergence of another candidate who could win at least 18 GOP and Democratic votes, Edmonds is expected to be elected president of the Senate on Dec. 1, when the 122nd Legislature convenes, as long as Democratic senators remain unified behind her.

When Democrats gathered at John Martin’s Merry Manor in Waterville (no relation to Sen. Martin) for leadership elections Tuesday, Martin reportedly received seven votes, the most among the three candidates vying for presiding officer. With a minimum of 10 votes needed to claim victory, the candidate with the least votes – Sen. Lynn Bromley of South Portland – was dropped from the second round of voting.

The final vote between Edmonds and Martin was not announced, but there were some tense expressions on the faces of Senate Democratic staffers as the ballots were counted. One Democrat at the meeting said many of the workers were concerned Martin would be inclined to “bring in his own people” if he held the presidency. When Edmonds was announced the winner, one staffer applauded with tears of joy welling in her eyes.

While Edmonds praised Senate staff and offered to reach out to House and Senate Democrats and Democratic Gov. John E. Baldacci in her campaign presentation, Martin took a more pragmatic approach and may not have delivered the speech that many Senate Democrats wanted to hear.

Over and over again, Martin hammered away on the need to erase the public perception that Senate Democrats cannot speak with one voice and that they have trouble getting along with each other, let alone the Republicans.

Warning that Maine voters had sent a clear message on Nov. 2 that they expect results from their lawmakers, Martin predicted Democrats could pay a dear price for assuming intractable partisan positions on key issues.

“I believe that if we don’t deliver, we will only have ourselves to blame and our future will be in doubt,” he said.

Martin then pledged to seek “a common consensus” with Republicans and to make a two-thirds majority budget a top priority as presiding officer. Earlier this year, Democrats passed a supplemental budget by a simple majority that did not have GOP support.

“I frankly believe that we cannot continue to have majority decisions made by one vote,” Martin said. “It has to be more than that.”

On Wednesday, Edmonds said a two-thirds budget would be “a goal” for her as president, but not at the expense of core Democratic ideals and priorities. At the same time, she said she understood that a single-vote majority by Democrats in the Senate necessitated the need for her to “reach out to Republicans at every opportunity.”

“I don’t intend to be someone who rams things down anyone’s throat,” she said. “My style is to have as much agreement as we can get.”

Meanwhile, Senate Republican leader Paul Davis of Sangerville watched the slim chance of gaining a GOP majority slip away late Wednesday afternoon when Republicans conceded that a recount in Bangor’s Senate District 32 left incoming Sen. Joe Perry, D-Bangor, the clear winner. According to GOP lawyers monitoring the recount, Perry received 9,636 votes to Bangor Republican Sen. Tom Sawyer’s 9,356.

Davis said he planned to congratulate Edmonds, whom he described as “a fine woman who I always got along with.” He said he hoped the Senate president-elect would work hard to craft a budget in the next session that could be supported by two-thirds of the Senate.

“It didn’t happen this year and I believe it poisoned the atmosphere around here for the rest of the session,” Davis said. “A two-thirds budget is what I believe we should have and it’s also what I believe the people of Maine expect us to pass.”