FARMINGTON – By a 2 to 1 margin, Lance Harvell, R-Farmington, was elected in a special election to the House District 89 seat, which represents the towns of Farmington and Industry.
Harvell fills the seat vacated by Janet Mills, a democrat, after she won the District 89 seat in November and then was elected in December to the state’s attorney general post.
The vote in Industry was 111 for Harvell and 84 for democratic challenger Dennis Haszko. In Farmington, the vote was by a wider margin, 1,124 for Harvell and 533 for Haszko. Overall, Harvell received 1,235 votes to Haszko’s 617.
In a Daily Bulldog debate held Jan. 21 at UMF, Harvell stressed cutting state spending, especially at the Department of Health and Human Services, which represents a third of the state’s total expenditure. Haszko emphasized growing the economy and looking at tax stimulus such as expanding the Pine Tree tax zones, were among the issues.
“I’m in shock,” said Harvell tonight. “I’m thankful. I owe a lot to Janet (Mills) and a lot of volunteers who helped me out.”
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Harvell, 45, is an employee at Verso Paper Co, in Jay, and was nominated by the local republican committee to run for the House seat. Beginning in 2002, he has run for the District 89 seat three times, narrowly losing to Mills. Harvell is married and has two children.
Democratic challenger Haszko, 41, manages a patent practice within Eaton Peabody Patent Group LLC working from offices in Farmington and Augusta. He serves on the SAVES board and is an active volunteer in the community. He is married and has two children.
Congratulations to Lance Harvell.
What a relief.
Tony Hilton
Weld
Thank goodness!! We NEED fiscal conservatives in office who REP their constituents, and not the big government party. Maine need to abolish DHHS and fund schools properly, especially those in rural Maine.
I believe Mr. Harvell was misquoted in this article. I certainly did not help Mr. Harvell. To the contrary, I fully supported the Democratic candidate. I assume what Mr. Harvell meant was that having run three times against me in the past made him a more effective candidate; so, he “owes a lot to” having run against Janet Mills in the past. By the way, the first election in 2002 was close, app. 65 votes; the other two were not nearly as close.
JTM