U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud will reclaim his seat in Congress Tuesday, holding a wide lead over his closest opponent, Republican Brian Hamel, based on unofficial returns compiled by the Bangor Daily News.

Michaud, a freshman Democrat, had 58 percent of the vote compared to Hamel’s 39 percent, with 87 percent of precincts reporting.

The race’s third candidate, Carl Cooley of the Socialist Equality Party, had 3 percent of the early vote. “I knew we had the right message with jobs and health care, and we will continue to move forward on those issues,” Michaud said from the campaign’s headquarters in Medway, where he joined supporters Tuesday evening after a daylong tour through the district.

Earlier in the day, Michaud, a longtime lawmaker before winning the seat two years ago, appeared tired but relaxed as he greeted voters outside the Abraham Lincoln School in Bangor, the district’s second-largest city.

“I voted for you,” said one young man, giving Michaud the thumbs up, with the sweater-clad candidate responding in kind before resuming his casual conversation with a few state legislative candidates also positioned outside the polls.

About 10 miles north in the paper mill city of Old Town, Michaud, a 28-year papermaker himself, found some support from Chris Ware, a 30-year-old personal trainer who voted on his lunch break.

“I voted for him last time,” said Ware, a Democrat, upon exiting the Knights of Columbus Hall, the city’s largest polling station. “He’s done a good job.”

Hamel was resolute early Tuesday evening, crisscrossing the district by air before arriving in Presque Isle to watch the results roll in at a local restaurant with his family.

By late Tuesday evening, the Republican candidate called Michaud to concede the race shortly after 11:30 p.m.

“The power of incumbency is a powerful one,” Hamel said after the call, during which he congratulated Michaud and told the returning congressman he would support him during his next term in Washington.

Hamel, whose campaign centered on his success in creating jobs, took leave from his post as head of the Loring Development Authority to run for Congress in March. During the campaign he received the endorsements of several business groups as well as the Maine Medical Association and Associated Builders and Contractors.

Tonya Nutall, a 30-year-old homemaker from Old Town, said she voted for Hamel, based on his experience creating jobs at Loring – and his inexperience in politics.

“I like the fact that he’s a newcomer,” said Nutall, whose husband and two small children accompanied her to the polls. “We need some new faces in Congress.”

The final weeks of the campaign were marked with some testy exchanges – not the least of which was Hamel’s hammering of Michaud on his vote on funding the war in Iraq. Michaud voted against the $87 billion supplemental budget to fund the war, prompting Hamel to accuse him of playing politics at the expense of soldiers’ safety.

Michaud, in turn, questioned Hamel’s claims that he was responsible for creating 1,200 jobs at the former Loring Air Force Base after its closure in 1994. Michaud said many of the jobs were already in place before Hamel’s arrival.

Exit polling, coordinated by Capitol News Service, was conducted among 1,808 Mainers in 70 polling locations, also predicted a Michaud victory.