The 40′ blue spruce that arrived in Monument Square from South Portland This Morning. The Annual Tree Lighting Ceremony is on Friday, November 23.

Jared Golden (D) has won a seat in the US House of Representatives in a historic vote by using ranked-choice voting according to the Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap.  He has won the right to represent the 2nd District of Maine over Bruce Poliquin (R). Golden defeated incumbent Bruce Poliquin (R) who is challenging the legality of ranked-choice voting in a court case.  Golden received 139,231 votes to 136,326 votes for Poliquin.  In other words, Golden won 50.5% of the vote to Poliquin’s 49.5% of the vote.

Maine has become the first state in the nation to elect its federal representative with ranked-choice voting.

It is seen by many Maine voters as an additional repudiation of the narrow-minded and mean-spirited policies by Governor Paul LePage and the Trump administration.  This adds to the important majority of the Democrats in Washington, D.C. over the Republicans.  This victory by Golden will give the Democrats even more leverage in their pursuit of the Trump administration’s investigations planned for next year.

note: A description of ranked-choice voting was given by Rachel Maddow on her tv cable show this evening in describing the victory of Jared Golden (D) over Bruce Poliquin (R) today.