Senate Republicans, who lost two incumbents in last week's election, decided to choose new leaders for their caucus.

Republicans will have 15 members for the next two years, compared to 20 for Democrats.

Sen. Kevin Raye of Perry defeated Sen. Carol Weston of Montville to become Senate minority leader. Raye, 47, owner of Raye's Mustard Mill in Eastport, spent many years working for Sen. Olympia Snowe.

He didn't want to say too much about the caucus (it was closed to the press), other than that it appeared other caucus members wanted to go in a different direction by choosing new leaders.

Raye stressed that he'll be a collaborator who tries to unite House and Senate Republicans. And he said he'll work with Democrats as well as he can.

Republicans also chose Sen. Jonathan Courtney of Springvale, as assistant minority leader. He said they are going to examine what happened in the election and promised they will be "the loyal opposition."

"We've got a lot of work to do," said Courtney, 42, owner of a dry cleaning business in southern Maine. "We've got some tough decisions to make."