WINDHAM – Democrat Jane Pringle and Republican Tom Tyler earned seats in the Maine House with wins on Tuesday.

In District 111, which covers most of Windham, Pringle defeated Republican Toby Pennels 2,545 votes to 2,262.

Tyler claimed District 110, which includes East Windham and West Gray, over Democrat Ralph Johnston. Tyler garnered 2,071 votes in Windham and 601 votes in Gray while Johnston received 1,833 votes in Windham and 515 in Gray.

Pennels, who served tours in Iraq, is a member of the Sebago Lake Rotary Club and is a longtime Windham resident, has served on the Windham-Raymond School Board for 11 years. He managed to garner the most votes of the three school board candidates but lost to Pringle for the House seat. Pennels did not return phone calls by deadline.

Pringle credits her win to her door-to-door campaigning effort.

“Toby is a very nice man and his wife is a nice person, and maybe people figured well, he’ll be busy with the school board and so we’ll send Jane to Augusta,” she said.

Pringle, a general internist and health clinic director at Maine Medical Center, has been in the Windham community for decades and said she “reconnected with a lot of people at their homes because I started last April going door to door.”

As a doctor, Pringle said many residents she met on the campaign trail were concerned about affordable health care.

“I found many people who were very upset with the lack of health-care coverage and a system that isn’t fair,” she said, adding that her aim in Augusta will be to bring meaningful health-care reform.

The District 110 race featured the Republican Tyler, a former Democrat who served in 1995 and 1996 in the Maine House, vying against 92-year-old Ralph Johnston, a longtime Windham resident known for his conservation efforts on Highland Lake and other local water bodies. Once a Republican, Johnston has recently become a Democrat.

Johnston was upbeat Wednesday despite the loss.

“Evidently the independents were leaning more Republican, and the independents are the ones who make the difference,” Johnston said.

Johnston said Democrat campaign strategists determined that he knocked on the second highest amount of doors among Democrat candidates in Maine during the campaign. He said he went out almost daily for months.

“I enjoyed it really,” Johnston said. “I much appreciate the help that everyone gave me in support of my campaign. It was a great adventure and I met a lot of great people along the way. I send my best wishes to Tom Tyler in his efforts to move the middle class up.”

Tyler, who will replace the term-limited Democrat Mark Bryant, said he was excited to go back to Augusta.

“It was a good race. Ralph is a nice guy, a very pleasant gentlemen, a former veteran, and he ran a good race. It was positive from both of us and there was no attacking from either one of us,” Tyler said.

Tyler said he’s a fiscal conservative and social moderate and, as a member of the Republican minority in the House, he says he worked across the aisle back in the 1990s and “I intend to do that again.”

Tom Tyler