I feel this is a big story in Maine and will give hope to other states that are pushing back against the wingnuttery. The seat became available after a true believer republican resigned as he got the job running the states biggest hunting organization.
I guess this is a good place to go below the florid squiggle--
Republican Maine State Senator David Trahan got a better job as the head of the sportsman alliance of Maine so he resigned from his seat. He wasn't much loved by my family. My wife called him once about the teachers retirement system changes (theft) and he asked where she was getting her information from? When she said the MEA he said they are lying. Not the most polished constituent skills there.
Dana Dow (R) ran against Chris Johnson (D). Dow currently is a house representative and owns a family run furniture store. He was also a high school teacher for many years thus he had great name recognition. His campaign seemed to have many resources judging by the amount and quality of signage. I also don't think he was disliked much except by people who like me hold the fact that he's a republican against him.
Johnson lives in the smallest town on the mainland in the county (Somerville-pop. around 500) and had only once ran for a seat before, thus not great name recognition. He's very low key and not self promoting so honestly I didn't think he stood a chance.
I have to believe that Johnson won mostly after his hard work because people are horrified at the damage that Governor LePage and his republican majority are doing to the state. LePage only won because there was an independent running along with a weak democratic candidate. I believe he's called mister 34 percent or somewhat near that.
Good news is so much better when you don't expect it. I shall now attempt a link---yeah
I know I won't get many eyes at this hour but I'm excited. It's kinda hard to know how much info that I assume people know is just local info and doesn't make sense in the big world so apologies if muddled