HARTFORD — Late Wednesday afternoon, Dave Duguay was nearly done retrieving his campaign signs.

It was a task he started Tuesday night while waiting to learn that he'd won a third straight term as Oxford County District 2 commissioner.  He finished at 3 a.m. Wednesday and was back out at noon to get the remaining signs in Hartford.

Duguay, I-Byron, said he was "humbled" to learn he'd been re-elected.

Although Upton's ballot returns have yet to come in, Duguay defeated challenger Jane Rich, D-Andover, by an unofficial tally of 5,954 to 2,708.  He carried the district's 16 communities, except Andover and Gilead.

"I'm honored and feel privileged and humbled and it feels great," Duguay said.

He said he couldn't wait to return to work as a commissioner, because budget work is finishing up and he expects to be chosen to preside over meetings.

"I've got to get my ducks in a row, because I am in line to be chairman," Duguay said.

"We've made some great strides, but we still have more to go. I'm looking forward to talking to Jane more, because she has become more involved and she has some nice ideas."

Rich said Wednesday afternoon at home in Andover that although she lost, "I stuck to my pledge to run an inexpensive campaign."

"I got 31 percent of the vote and I figure that being against an opponent who spent a large amount of money, I don't think that's too bad," she said.

"It's very hard to unseat an incumbent, very hard," she said.

tkarkos@sunjournal.com