SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine — In unofficial results, Republican candidate Kevin Battle has won a tightly contested three-way race for the open District 33 seat in the Maine House of Representatives.
Battle outpolled Democrat Rosemarie De Angelis by 2 percent of those casting ballots, 1,470 to 1,405, with Green Independent candidate Andrew Reddy receiving 329 votes.
Battle, 56, of Sandy Hill Road was a city police officer for 27 years before his first campaign for office in 2012 against Democratic Rep. Bryan Kaenrath, losing by just under 200 votes.
Kaenrath was unable to run this year because of term limits.
District 33 includes the neighborhoods west of Main Street and north of Broadway, up to Tanner Street. Before redistricting, it was House District 124.
A few miles away, state Rep. Kimberly Monaghan-Derrig, D-Cape Elizabeth, handily won a third term in House District 30, defeating Republican challenger Pauline Wilcox, 3,169 to 1,859 — a margin of more than 25 percent of voters.
District 30 comprises Cape Elizabeth and a portion of South Portland.
Monaghan-Derrig is a marketing analyst for an online news service and also is an adjunct professor at the University of Southern Maine. Wilcox had never previously run for elective office.