During this campaign effort, a great many folks told me, “You’re the first Republican I’ve ever voted for!” After four years representing Bangor in the Maine Senate, I believe there were good reasons for that statement:

My constituent services were consistently complimented; especially the poor, ill and elderly.

I consistently took leadership roles in passing healthy environmental legislation as the senior Republican senator on the Natural Resources Committee. Maine Audubon and the League of Conservation Voters agreed.

My pro-jobs voting record was well documented by the Maine Economic Research Institute, National Federation of Independent Business, and others.

Thirty years of civic leadership are unparalleled in this generation.

So, how does an incumbent state senator lose?

A detailed analysis of Senate District 32’s votes highlights the following:

Rep. Joseph Perry and I were generally perceived well, and were consistently complimented for avoiding negative campaigning associated with so many races this year. It was “two nice guys,” both hometown boys, duking it out.

Since Clean Election laws were being interpreted by majority Democrats in Augusta, Rep. Perry was able to receive and spend $6,000 more than I, no matter how much I spent. As a result of one independent mailer by state Republicans, Perry received an additional $4,000 from Maine taxpayers for his campaign in late October. Ironically, Perry’s TV presence was far greater than mine due to this funding disparity.

With 400 Job Corps students voting at the Davis Road facility, I lost by only 10 votes; a winning precinct in 2002.

I outpolled every other Republican candidate by hundreds of votes at every precinct in the entire district.

I only won at Bangor High School by 191 votes; where in 2000, he outpolled even Olympia Snowe.

With only absentee ballots left to be counted, I was behind by 28 votes. More than 3,550 votes were cast at central precinct, essentially absentee ballots, a traditional Republican strength. All was looking good as of 3 a.m.

Hermon’s 312-vote margin was not enough to overcome absentee losses in Bangor.

My greatest margin of defeat came from absentee ballots. That 278-vote margin was greater than any other precinct. How could that be? Both parties did an aggressive job of promoting absentee voting and requests for ballots were evenly split. Yet, Republican House candidates lost absentee ballots by nearly 800 votes in the aggregate. George Bush lost absentees by 502 and 2nd District congressional candidate Brian Hamel by 868 in Bangor.

An election post-mortem in Bangor suggests the following:

. Items 1-4 were in play in this election. Hence the disparity between Senate candidate Sawyer and Republican candidates for State House, Congress and president in Bangor and Hermon.

. In Bangor, public service unions put on a full-court press in opposition to the Palesky tax cap in Bangor. Firefighters lobbied residents of Sunbury Village that two fire stations would close, and the residents’ lives would be placed “in jeopardy.” One fourth-grader told her teacher to vote no on Question 1 or her house would burn down.

Unionized Bangor schoolteachers sent letters home with children highlighting the dire consequences of Palesky: No art. No PE. No music. No teachers. One parent told me of a parent-teacher meeting where no discussion took place regarding Junior’s progress in class … the entire time was spent bemoaning the impact of the Palesky initiative.

Bangor’s city manager went on the road foretelling drastic cuts: No garbage collection. No ambulance. No parks. No snow removal. Fired firefighters and police officers. The sky would be falling if Carol Palesky won.

It was a clear case of government employees scaring the hell out of voters, generally; and elderly and infirm voters (absentees) specifically. In the end, Palesky lost in Bangor by 2.5 to 1.0, a more than 8,000-vote margin, by far the greatest spread of any issue on the ballot. The same margin applied in heavily Republican Hermon.

. Republicans were successfully branded as a pro-Palesky tax cap. Statewide, supporters included Eric Cianchette and Phil Harriman. No Republican effort was made to distinguish state spending limits in Augusta from the Palesky tax cap back home. Democrats did a better job of being “out front” on controversial issues like Palesky.

. My “opponent” in this election cycle was equal parts Rep. Joe Perry and Palesky. The anti-Palesky “campaign manager” was City Manager Ed Barrett, a respected city administrator and excellent campaigner.

One environmentalist chided, “The Republicans killed the bond issue.” The truth is that Gov. Baldacci scuttled the bond package before any of us could record our vote. As a co-sponsor of the Land for Maine’s Future bond, I never had a chance to vote on my own legislation!

The summary? Over the past 24 years, I’ve been on more Bangor ballots than anyone but John Baldacci. That’s a whole lotta public service.

A great many politicians see elected office as a career. Small business owners see elected office as an “offer to serve our neighbors,” it’s entirely up to the voters to accept that “offer” … or not. True, I found Augusta to be “a slumber party gone awry.” At the same time, what takes place in Augusta is vitally important, and deserves our brightest and best to take their turn at bat. Our children deserve nothing less.

My wife Bonnie and I will now enjoy golf in Savannah and gardening in Bar Harbor and there remain many opportunities for wearin’ o’ the kilt. We’ll see how the juices are flowing in ’06 when the next opportunity for public service comes around.

My congratulations to Sen.-elect Joe Perry, native son of Bangor, for a well-fought, professionally conducted and successful campaign. It was a distinct pleasure to have debated Joe on the campaign trail and I now wish him the wisdom of Solomon during the upcoming legislative session.

W. Tom Sawyer Jr., of Bangor, is the outgoing state senator from District 32.