WALDO - Late Wednesday morning, Senate Minority Leader Michael Thibodeau (R-Winterport) and his challenger in the State Senate District 11 race, Jonathan Fulford (D-Monroe) converged on the Waldo town office. In the previous 12 hours, returns had come in from the county’s other 25 municipalities, but their race was still too close to call.

Thibodeau would extend his small lead to prevail by 115 votes in the unofficial counts submitted by town clerks, but until town officials in Waldo started releasing numbers, victory was far from a sure thing.

As workers hand counted ballots in the unheated town office Thibodeau seemed buoyant. Without the votes from Waldo, he had a 49 vote lead, and the town he’d with the only uncounted votes has leaned Republican in past elections. Regardless of his own race, the Republican party had done exceedingly well in the midterm elections.

“We’re going to have the [Maine] Senate Republican whether I win or not,” he said. “I couldn’t be happier.”

Fulford was clearly in a different state of mind. The political newcomer had spent the better part of the year knocking on doors around Waldo County. In total, he went to over 8,000 homes.

“That’s a lot of conversations,” he said.  A lot of dogs, too, he added, flashing a quick smile.

In the end Fulford did better than many outside the ranks of his own close supporters expected, but fell just short of pulling off an upset over his seasoned opponent.

State law allows a candidate to request a recount free of charge if the margin of difference between the two candidates is two percent or less of the total votes cast [An earlier version of this article incorrectly listed the margin as half a percent]. Fulford said he was waiting for returns on lineworker and overseas ballots before making a decision about requesting a recount. 

Results: