David Cotta, the Republican running for re-election in House District 55, has mellowed after one term in the House. When he first ran for the seat, Cotta was partisan and pugnacious; now, he's not.

Instead, he says he wants to work in a "bipartisan" manner to solve the state's problems. His response to school consolidation is measured, unlike many of his rural Republican colleagues.

He says, "it was not done right, the timeline was too short," and that he wants to see a "phased approach" instead to consolidation.

He'd like to see more "efficiencies" in state government as a way of bridging the gap between revenues and spending.

Either Cotta's gone all soft, or he's learned that change under the Statehouse dome happens slowly, and in partnership with others -- not when you throw bombs.

And Cotta's not entirely lost his contrarian tendencies: We note his "No" vote on a bill to allow the state to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a bill that was overwhelmingly supported by his Statehouse colleagues from both parties.

Cotta was one of only seven lawmakers in the House (all Republicans) to vote against that bill, which authorized the historic, innovative and much-needed program to lower greenhouse gas emissions.

Cotta's challenger, Democrat Christopher Doyon, is full of enthusiasm -- his campaign slogan is "A Bright And Shining Future With Hope" -- but doesn't seem to have his feet on the ground.

"The only thing Dirigo Health needs is more funding," he told us. "And I do have a funding mechanism that ... will handily accomplish this and more." But asked what that mechanism is, Doyon says only, "I reserve the right to keep the details of this bold new mechanism to myself until after the election."

That's too bad. If Doyon had a reasonable answer to the vexing problem of Dirigo funding, he'd deserve a lot of votes.

But as it is, Doyon simply doesn't offer enough to justify not returning Cotta. We endorse David Cotta's bid for re-election.