McCormick keeps

Senate seat

Sen. Earle McCormick, R-West Gardiner, won re-election to his state Senate seat by defeating Democrat Sharon Benoit, of Monmouth, according to unofficial results.

Totals show McCormick with 11,693 votes to 9,960 for Benoit.

Senate District 21 covers Chelsea, Farmingdale, Gardiner, Hallowell, Litchfield, Manchester, Monmouth, Pittston, Randolph, West Gardiner and Winthrop.

Trahan is apparent

Senate winner

Election results indicate Republican David Trahan, of Waldoboro, has topped Democrat Peter Rines for an open seat representing Senate District 20.

He said he realized he won the seat about 3:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Trahan said returns showed him taking Waldoboro by 1,200 votes, and Washington by more than 200 votes, boosting him to about 1,585 votes ahead of Rines.

"I kept waking up every half hour thinking. 'What have I done?'" Trahan said. "It will be a tough session with big money issues."

Trahan spent eight years in the House representing part of Jefferson, Nobleboro, Bremen and Waldoboro.

Republican Dana Dow opted against running for re-election.

The district includes towns in three counties:

Alna, Boothbay, Boothbay Harbor, Bremen, Bristol, Damariscotta, Edgecomb, Hibberts Gore, Jefferson, Monhegan Island Plantation, Newcastle, Nobleboro, Somerville, South Bristol, Southport, Waldoboro, Westport Island, Whitefield and Wiscasset in Lincoln; Friendship and Washington in Knox; and Windsor in Kennebec.

Piotti wins seat

in House District 45

Winning everywhere except in his opponent's hometown, Democrat John F. Piotti, of Unity, won the House District 45 seat by a 2-to-1 margin.

Piotti defeated Republican Matthew W. Evans, of Palermo, 2,769 to 1,367. Evans, 43, a lawyer, won in Palermo, 409-395.

Executive director of Maine Farmland Trust, Piotti, 47, won in Unity, 712-275, and in most of the other five district towns. Piotti, who helped create the community-betterment group Unity Barn Raisers, has chaired the taxation, conservation and forestry committees, as well as the select committee on Maine's future prosperity.

Treat tops Jacques

for House seat

Sharon Anglin Treat will serve another term as a Maine legislator, results from Tuesday's election indicate.

Treat, an incumbent Democrat from Hallowell, defeated Charles W. Jacques to represent District 79. Treat received 3,414 votes; Jacques, 1,814, with Hallowell, Farmingdale and West Gardiner reporting,

Treat is a four-time legislator, four-time Senate member. She is an attorney and lives in Hallowell. It was Jacques's first attempt to run for public office. He is a Republican and lives in West Gardiner.

Flood retains

House seat

Patrick Flood, a two-term incumbent legislator in House District 82, Winthrop and Readfield, won a third term by a 2-1 margin Tuesday.

Results from both towns give Flood, a Republican, 3,489 votes and Jenkins 1,713 votes.

Jenkins, a Democrat, is in her first term as a Winthrop town councilor.

Flood, of Winthrop, is a retired business manager who serves on the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee.

Here is the breakdown by town:

Winthrop: Flood 2,468; Jenkins 1,173;

Readfield: Flood 1,021; Jenkins 540.

Jones returns

to Statehouse

Rep. Pat Jones, D-Mount Vernon, comfortably won re-election to her seat in the Maine House in voting on Tuesday, edging out challenger Clyde Dyar, a Mount Vernon Republican.

Jones won 3,401 votes, or 57 percent, to Dyar's 2,553, earning her first full term in the Statehouse.

She won a special election to the House seat in November 2007 after her husband, Deane Jones, died of cancer while in office.

The race was closest in Manchester, where Jones claimed 52 percent of the vote. Jones won by the widest margin in Fayette, where she earned 59 percent of the vote, according to unofficial results.

House District 83 includes Belgrade, Fayette, Manchester, Mount Vernon and Vienna.

Brown keeps

House seat

Incumbent Rep. William Browne, of Vassalboro, kept his House District 58 seat, defeating Democratic challenger Patricia Karush.

Browne, in unofficial results, defeated fellow Vassalboro resident, Karush, by an unofficial total of 2,848 to 1,718.

In Vassalboro, Browne's 1,533 votes topped Karush's 816.

Browne received 589 votes in the part of Augusta, which is included in District 58. Karush received 406 votes in Augusta.

In Windsor, Browne received 726 votes to Karush's 496.

Daggett wins race

for commissioner

Beverly Daggett will succeed Wesley Kieltyka as the Kennebec County Commissioner in District 1.

Daggett, D-Augusta, defeated F. Gerald "Jerry" Nault, 10,761-6,442, with all represented towns reporting. Kieltyka chose to not seek a sixth term as commissioner.

District 1 represents Augusta, China, Chelsea, Pittston, Randolph, Sidney, Vassalboro and Windsor.

Nault, R-Windsor, served as a selectman in his hometown for almost two decades before resigning just weeks ago. For the last nine years, he has also been a municipal representative on the county Budget Committee.

Daggett is a four-time legislator, five-time member of the Senate. In the past she has served as Senate President.

School merger

plan approved

Voters in eight towns approved a proposal to merge their schools systems in voting Tuesday.

As a result, eight towns stretching from Palermo in the north to Westport Island in the south will have something in common come July 1, 2009: a school board and superintendent.

Unofficial results show all eight towns in the proposed district -- Alna, Chelsea, Palermo, Somerville, Westport Island, Whitefield, Windsor and Wiscasset -- approving the merger referendum, 4,819 or 60 percent, to 3,166.

The merged district -- called the Sheepscot Valley Regional School Unit -- would still have proceeded even if one or more town had rejected the measure. The approving towns simply would need 1,200 students combined. The approved school unit will have approximately 2,300 students.

The eight towns voted on the schools merger in response to the state's June 2007 school district consolidation mandate, an attempt to cut school administrative costs by reducing the number of districts from 290 to 80.

Somerville agrees

to join school unit

Voters approved, 176-84, a reorganization plan to join Alna, Chelsea, Palermo, Westport Island, Whitefield, Wiscasset and Windsor in a regional school unit. Residents voted 165-98 against changing the tax collector/treasurer from an elected to an appointed position.

Thomas, Russell, Weeks win seats

Joan Thomas, Scott Weeks and Vicki Russell won seats on the new board that will direct Regional School Unit 4, the consolidated school district that includes Litchfield, Sabattus and Wales.

Litchfield has three seats on the nine-member board.

Thomas and Weeks currently serve on the Litchfield School Committee. Russell previously served on that committee.

Robert Gordon, who worked on the consolidation committee was the fourth-highest vote-getter.

Here are the official totals from Litchfield:

* Joan Thomas 1,254;

* Scott Weeks 1,222;

* Vicki Russell 1,191; and

* Robert Gordon 979.

According to the election warden, 1,984 people voted in Litchfield.

Palermo joins

school unit

Residents approved a reorganization plan to join Alna, Chelsea, Somerville, Westport Island, Whitefield, Wiscasset and Windsor in a regional school unit. They vote 459 to 356 in favor of the plan.

Chelsea currently is a member of School Union 133.

Leet, Lambert

win in Farmingdale

Residents voted two write-in candidates to represent Farmingdale on the new Regional School Unit board.

Linda Leet received 177 votes, followed by Jon Lambert with 127 votes.

Aimee Ellis received 70 write-in votes, followed by Pam Longfellow with 34.

Kennebec Intra-District Schools Regional School Unit will oversee schools in Hallowell, Farmingdale, Dresden, Monmouth and Richmond. The board will take control next July when the school consolidation takes effect.

Compiled from local reports