It’s a new day for Democrats at the State House, in several senses.

First, there is the advent of all-new leadership in the House and Senate. Mark Eves will become House speaker when the Legislature convenes next month, and Justin Alfond will become Senate president. Both are youthful – Alfond, at 37, is the second youngest Senate president to date, while Eves is 35.

And for the first time in nearly two generations, John Martin will not be serving in the Legislature, either in the House – where he was elected speaker 10 times – or the Senate, where he bided his time for eight years.

These changes are not merely symbolic. A party that, after nearly 40 years in charge of the House, and almost 30 years running the Senate, was routed in the 2010 elections, may be getting a new political lease. In that sense, Martin’s departure is nearly as significant as the arrival of a new generation of leaders.

For better or worse, Martin dominated politics in Maine for decades. He not only took a part-time position and turned it into a fiefdom nearly as powerful as the governor, but also ended up personifying many people’s negative feelings about state government.

He’s why we have legislative term limits, for instance – a belated response to a ballot-tampering scandal engineered by his chief aide, though Martin was cleared.

He stepped down as speaker under pressure, but remained a dominant presence.

Martin defied the term limits voters installed, running as a write-in candidate and nearly making it; if he had won, the Supreme Court would have had an interesting decision. Switching to the Senate, Martin made one final bid for power in 2004, falling one caucus vote short of becoming Senate president.

On Nov. 6, he lost for the first time since 1964. The reason, amid a Democratic sweep, was not his opponent or money or advertising. It was business dealings over a convenience store that did him in. With a partner, Martin managed to file for bankruptcy with a debt of $250,000 to Irving Oil, then bought the business back at half the price. In between, he sponsored a bill to loosen mining regulations, benefiting another Irving company. Martin insists they’re unrelated, but since Irving is privately held, there’s no way to know. In any case, the voters didn’t believe him.

So the decks are cleared for what should be a substantive, and sometimes entertaining contest between Alfond and Eves, on one side, and Gov. Paul LePage on the other.

Unlike their immediate predecessors, Senate Minority Leader Barry Hobbins and House Minority Leader Emily Cain, the new leaders aren’t inclined to defer to the Republican governor. Democrats signed off in 2011 on a huge tax cut that a new Legislature would have to fund — a bipartisan agreement dubious at the time that looks downright unaffordable now.

Eves served on the Health and Human Services Committee, and was an articulate critic of LePage’s endless quest for health care cuts. Alfond criticized LePage’s approach to public education, clearly getting under the governor’s skin.

The same is true for other Democratic leaders. Rep. Seth Berry, incoming majority leader, pointing out repeatedly that the tax cuts were unfunded. Rep. Jeff McCabe, House majority whip, contested LePage’s refusal to issue bonds for a $3.5 million program to help rural towns fix up their downtowns, leaving 11 communities scrambling for funding. And the new Senate assistant majority leader, Troy Jackson, a logger, has gone toe-to-toe with LePage on labor issues in the north woods.

The point is not that the Democrats are itching for a fight. None of them would say anything as needlessly provocative as LePage just did during a post-election breakfast: “If you want a good education, go to a private school. If you can’t afford it, tough luck.”

LePage never offers any evidence to support his belief that private schools are inherently superior. That is not his way. But as governor, his responsibility is to the public schools more than 90 percent of Maine students attend. Dismissing them as hopeless isn’t likely to encourage the improvements he claims to seek. Nor does he seem aware that his attitude toward public institutions like schools is one reason so many Republicans lost on Nov. 6.

There will be multiple showdowns — on taxes, on education and on Medicaid. LePage’s insistence on removing health care for thousands of Mainers is about to run head-on into the expansion of Medicaid paid by the federal government.

And at the moment, LePage doesn’t have many allies.