WINDHAM – Windham Democrat Bill Diamond, a former Maine secretary of state and longtime member of the Legislature, on Tuesday handily defeated Republican Kaile Warren in the District 26 Senate race.

Diamond won roughly 63 percent of the vote in the race for District 26, a newly drawn Senate seat that includes Windham, Raymond, Standish, Frye Island, Casco and Baldwin. Warren, the former Windham town councilor and proprietor of the national handyman company Rent-a-Husband, received roughly 37 percent of the vote. According to Diamond, the 27 percent spread is his largest margin of victory to date.

In Windham, Diamond beat Warren 4,984-2,573. In Standish, he won 2,553-1,649. In Baldwin, Diamond beat Warren 407-325. In Raymond, the Democrat won 1,431-846. In Casco, Diamond won 972-664. Results were not available from Frye Island, as of press time.

To Diamond, the message of the election is clear: Lakes Region voters are independent thinkers who want to be “listened to and not talked to.”

“Given that it was a huge Republican sweep statewide, and understanding that my opponent had unlimited resources and that he had the full active involvement of the current state Sen. Gary Plummer – all of those together and we still get 63 percent, it’s very humbling,” Diamond said. “People out here cross party lines all the time, and I’m very glad that they do that.”

Warren was the fourth Republican candidate to face off against Diamond in this year’s election. In September, Warren threw his hat into the race after the third candidate, Stuart “Toby” Pennels, a 55-year-old Casco-based financial adviser and Iraq War veteran, died as a result of injuries related to an Aug. 3 motorcycle accident near Rangeley.

Plummer and Standish resident David Call withdrew from the race earlier in the cycle.

Warren, who spent about $40,000 of his own money on signs and a string of large newspaper ads describing his life story and personal philosophy, emphasized that he only had 59 days to campaign after he entered the race.

“There just simply was not enough time to get the message out there,” Warren said. “I’m really proud of the fact that we pulled in 6,000 votes. I think that says a lot, especially against somebody who’s been campaigning for the past 30 years, really. Bill is a very smooth politician.”

In the Legislature, Diamond said he aims to focus on fostering a discussion about road and rail improvements in the region, in order to increase the number of decent-paying jobs in the region.

“It takes us sitting down at the table and finding out what the specific needs are and what do we do as an area to make it all happen,” he said.

Diamond, who faced four different candidates during the course of the campaign, described the race as “an unusual campaign, filled with tragedy and uncertainty.”

First came Plummer, R-Cumberland, the most recent seat-holder and former four-time member of the Maine House of Representatives. Plummer dropped out of the race in early February for family reasons. Then there was Call, an ammunition salesman from Standish with scant political experience who withdrew as well. Then came Pennels, the retired Army colonel, who died on Sept. 4.

Plummer said that “literally nobody stepped forward” to replace Pennels after he was withdrawn from the race. Then, a mutual friend of Warren’s and Plummer’s put the two in touch. After speaking with Warren, Plummer encouraged him to run.

Into the breach stepped Warren, who became the subject of national headlines when the Maine Attorney General’s Office slapped him with a criminal indictment in 2009, following complaints from half a dozen irate Rent-A-Husband promissory note holders that Warren was not paying them back. It was the beginning of a four-year legal imbroglio that finally came to an end in March when the attorney general, who had dropped the criminal charges in 2011, dismissed subsequent civil action against him.

Under the terms of a consent judgment, Warren transferred just under $2 million to the state to distribute to his investors. On Feb. 28, Warren also reached a confidential settlement with Ace Hardware and the two law firms, Preti Flaherty and Marcus Clegg & Mistretta, that had drafted investment contracts and agreements for him.

When asked if he would run for office again, Warren said, “I haven’t even thought about it at this point.”

Gray residents exercise their right to vote at the Newbegin Community Center on Tuesday afternoon. Voter turnout was heavy in Gray and surrounding towns as residents turned out to vote on local and state referendums as well as local, state and Congressional representatives. In Gray and New Gloucester, voters soundly rejected a $7.4 million proposal to build a school athletic complex.