LEWISTON – Mayor-elect Larry Gilbert credited hard campaigning for his 63 percent win at the polls Tuesday in Lewiston.

“I worked extremely hard for this,” he said. “I went door-to-door as much as I could to talk to all those voters. I think they appreciated that I’ve given them a voice and tried to involve them in the process.”

Gilbert, a former police chief, drew 2,759 votes for the win. He’ll be sworn in at 11 a.m. today at Lewiston City Hall and will serve through November, finishing the rest of Lionel Guay’s term. Guay resigned in late November.

City Councilor Norm Rousseau had the second-highest vote total at 1,272. School Committee member Leah Poulin was a distant third with 186 votes. Six-time mayoral candidate Charles Soule tallied 78 votes.

In his acceptance speech, Gilbert said he will strive to make Lewiston a better place.

“This campaign has been about my support of K-to-adult education,” he said. “It has been about efforts to keep taxes in check. It has been about consolidation and efficient services. It has been about small business and economic development.”

Gilbert’s first official meeting as mayor will be at the City Council’s March 6 meeting. One goal between now and then is to rebuild his relationships with councilors and city staff. Gilbert has been a tough critic of the council, but he admits he must find a way to work with them.

“I want to be the first one to do that,” he said. He plans to meet with each councilor and City Administrator Jim Bennett individually to mend fences.

“We have to work together, because we were all elected by the people,” he said. “We are all delegates of the people and they are depending on us to do their work.”

Rousseau said Gilbert does have some work to do.

“I don’t know how he will mend those fences,” Rousseau said. “I mean, once you’ve made your bed, you have to sleep in it. If you’re elected, you have to work with the other people that are there, too.”

Rousseau that some policy decisions he’s had a hand in are controversial to this day. Those include involving the city in the Colisee and creating a storm water utility fee system.

“All you can do is try and do what’s best for the majority of the city,” he said. “I think we’ve done that. I had someone tell me the other day, if you managed to please 51 percent of the residents of the city, you’ve done a good job.”

Rousseau said it was too soon to say whether he would run for the mayor’s job again.

But Poulin said she’ll certainly be back in November.

“I think I got some people to pay more attention to the city,” she said. “I am younger, and I am different from the other candidates and I think I related to some because of that.”

Familiarity key

For many voters in the mayor’s race, familiarity was the most important factor.

Louise Martel, of Fox Run Drive, said she voted for Gilbert because of family connections.

“I’ve known his family for a long time, and I know a lot about him,” she said. “He’s a good man, and he’s done a lot of hard work for the community.”

Dan Derosby, of Valley Street, voted for Gilbert for his past accomplishments.

“He worked his way up from a being a beat cop and made chief, and that’s very admirable to me,” Derosby said. But Derosby said Rousseau’s involvement downtown counted against him. Rousseau’s ownership of the Pilsbury Block buildings and lawsuits against the city in 2003 were marks against him.

John Dinodovico, of Elaine Avenue liked Rousseau’s experience.

“He’s been involved and he really knows what’s going on in the city,” he said. “The rest just show up to talk. But Norm knows what the city is trying to develop.”

High turnout

In all, 4,361 voters cast their ballots. That amounts to a 20 percent turnout – impressive for a special election. The city’s last special election was for a bond to replace the Farwell School in 2005. That vote drew 800 voters total.

City Clerk Kathy Montejo said Tuesday’s mild weather could be behind the good voter turnout.

“There was a line of 20 or so deep when we opened first thing in the morning, and it hasn’t slowed down once,” she said. “I’ve been told that it’s beautiful outside. That’s what everyone has said.”