Michaud re-elected in landslide Challenger D’Amboise tallied only 29% of votes

In the battle of the blue-collar candidates, 2nd Congressional District incumbent Democratic Rep. Michael Michaud tallied 71 percent of the vote to beat Laurence “Scott” D’Amboise, who was preferred by 29 percent of the voters. These results, according to preliminary polling results compiled by the Bangor Daily News, came with 84 percent of the state’s precincts reporting.

“I’ve put a call in to my opponent to concede,” D’Amboise said slightly before midnight Tuesday.

Michaud’s spokeswoman Monica Castellanos hadn’t received the news, but was certain that the representative had won.

“I think that we’re confident that with those numbers and the number of precincts reporting that the congressman has won the election,” Castellanos said.

D’Amboise wasn’t pleased with the result, but said he was proud of everyone who worked on his campaign.

“We had some strikes against us,” D’Amboise said. “We got into the race late, the Maine GOP didn’t help, the national GOP didn’t help. We received absolutely no money from the Republican party.”

The challenger said the lack of media attention also made it difficult to get his side of the story out to voters.

Michaud appeared confident during the campaign that he would win, raising more than $676,000 as of the October campaign finance filing deadline. After spending about $649,000 on his campaign, he shared additional funds raised with other Democratic congressional candidates.

D’Amboise on the other hand raised few campaign dollars and didn’t have any television advertisements. As of the Oct. 26 Federal Election Commission report, D’Amboise had raised a total of about $28,800.

Both candidates spent the day visiting polling sites throughout the 2nd District, including stops in Auburn, Waterville and Bangor.

While greeting voters late Monday afternoon at the Bangor Civic Center, D’Amboise, 43, said he remained optimistic despite the fact that 500 of his signs were stolen Monday night from the Bangor area.

“We’ve had a lot of people say they’re going to vote for us,” D’Amboise said. “A lot of Democrats – they’re ready for a change.”

Incumbent Michaud, a Democrat from East Millinocket, is seeking his third term in the U.S. Congress after serving in both the Maine House and Senate.

The representative, 51, first was elected to represent the 2nd District in 2002. Although he has been in Washington for four years, Michaud continues to stress his working-class roots. His endorsements are from numerous labor organizations, including teachers, steelworkers, nurses, paper mill groups and sportsmen.

Michaud, who grew up in Medway and attended Schenck High School in East Millinocket, said he’s all too familiar with poverty in Maine after working with people living from paycheck to paycheck.

Joseph Shaw of Bangor said he likes the fact that Michaud is an average Mainer.

“I just like the fact that he’s a small-town kind of guy,” Shaw said, explaining why he voted for the incumbent.

Michaud worked for nearly 30 years at Great Northern Paper Co. and pledged throughout his campaign to continue efforts to create fair-trade agreements, affordable health care, and improve economic development in Maine.

D’Amboise, who ran unopposed in the primary election, has said his opponent really is a career politician, not a working class Mainer.

A self-described family man, D’Amboise was born in Brewer, raised in Carmel and now resides in Lisbon Falls with his wife and two children, ages 7 and 9.

D’Amboise has worked as an eye care technician for 15 years and also operates a small family cleaning business with his wife.

He received endorsements from the Veterans Party of Maine and the National Association of Wholesale-Distributors.

Amy Hamilton of Bangor said she voted mostly Republican and also voted for the challenger.

“I don’t go down the liberal road too much,” she said. “That’s just the way I am. I’m just conservative.”