A follow-up to yesterday's post on the Lewiston mayoral race:

Bob MacDonald won the runoff election to become mayor of Lewiston last night, defeating his recently deceased opponent, Mark Paradis, by just 70 votes.

Rather than revelling in his victory, MacDonald took the opportunity to vow to exact an unknown revenge on an unnamed group of people in Paradis' camp who he says smeared him during the campaign.

Despite the death of candidate Mark Paradis of cancer last week, the mayoral runoff election in Lewiston between him and Robert MacDonald will still be held today. If MacDonald wins, he will become mayor, but if the voters select the deceased Paradis, a new election will be held.

For the last few years, Maine Senators Snowe and Collins have taken fewer stands outside the mainstream of their party, even as the national GOP has been pulled to the right. Snowe especially has taken a rightward tack as she faces a Tea Party primary challenge (albeit one that seems less electorally dangerous as time goes by).

Even in an off-off-year election, a high turnout of 42 entrants participated in the the 2011 election prediction pool. The prizes this year are a book by Allen Raymond and a Down East calendar, which will go to the top two overall winners.

As always, winners are determined by comparing their percentage predictions for each candidate (or, in the case of this election, referendum side) with the actual results, dividing by two for each race, and then totaling the results.

First, let's take a look at the individual results.

Welcome to the fourth annual Maine election prediction pool contest. You can enter right here.

Yesterday saw some great coverage of the Down East/Maine People's Resource Center poll of the Portland mayoral race, including front page stories in both Portland daily newspapers, radio and

The Maine People’s Resource Center today released the results of a public opinion poll sponsored by Down East taking a look at the current state of the Portland mayoral election.

A new poll released Wednesday by Critical Insights, a Maine-based public opinion research firm, finds that 51 percent of respondents in its fall tracking survey plan to vote in favor of Question 1 on November's ballot or have already done so. Question 1 is a people's veto seeking to reject a new law banning voter registration on Election Day and for four days beforehand.

In the spirit of the season, here's a photo from Rep. Jon Hinck's facebook page. Perhaps a sign he's ready to take the plunge for the 2012 senate race.

One or both of Hinck and Matt Dunlap should be announcing their intentions soon. If it becomes a race, look for their first financial reports to be an important milestone. Both potential candidates will have to make an electability argument and prove they can take on Snowe and her warchest.

There’s some irony to the fact that at the same time that large groups of people are now taking to streets and parks and the open air to protest the role of money, particularly corporate money, in politics, some very important decisions about exactly this issue are being made in the sheltered corridors of Maine’s statehouse.