With seven of 10 towns reporting, John Nutting led James Simones by about 1,000 votes in Tuesday’s race for the Maine Senate District 17 seat.

The district includes the towns of Greene, Leeds, Lisbon, Livermore, Livermore Falls, Mechanic Falls, Minot, Sabattus, Turner and Wales.

Nutting, a Democrat, led Republican Simones with more than 52 percent of the vote at 11 p.m. The total had Nutting with 8,827, Simones with 7,879.

Livermore Falls, Leeds and Wales had not submitted results at that time. Livermore voted 878 for Nutting, 395 for Simones.

Simones, a Lewiston restaurant owner, is a political newcomer. He pledged that if elected he would treat constituents as he has treated his restaurant patrons, being accessible. He favored school consolidation in some cases to cut costs but disagreed with the notion of a local-option sales tax. Simones is a resident of Greene.

Nutting, a dairy farmer and a political veteran with 12 years in the Legislature, also opposes a local option sales tax. He does not support further consolidation of schools, rather seeking cutbacks in school administration costs to bring down spending. Nutting felt some of the recent budget cuts enacted by the past session of the Legislature were too severe. Nutting is a resident of Leeds.

Both Nutting and Simones were Clean Election candidates.