Democratic state Representative Cynthia Dill delivered a devastating defeat to former GOP state Representative Louie Maietta in yesterday’s special election for Maine Senate District 7.

Dill crushed Maietta by a more than 2-to-1 margin (5056 to 2405), which included racking up her largest margin of victory in Maietta’s own home town.

Yesterday’s special election was held to fill the state Senate seat vacated by Democrat Larry Bliss earlier this year. Bliss won an extremely close race (by 75 votes) for the district in 2010, but he resigned in March when he landed a job at a California university. After being able to only list “State Legislator” as his occupationon his resume for 16 months, Bliss’ prolonged unemployment forced him to expand his job search beyond Maine’s borders.

Speaking of working in Maine…

Republicans in Maine’s legislature have been working for months to roll back the state’s child labor laws. Proposals set forth by the GOP include 

• Establishing a 180-day period during which workers under age 20 would earn $5.25 per hour (as opposed to the state’s current minimum wage of $7.50 per hour).
• Eliminating the maximum number of hours a minor over 16 can work during the school week.
• Allowing children to work until 11 p.m. on school nights (current law lets kids go home at 10 p.m.).

Yesterday the GOP-controlled state Senate passed a bill that had been scaled back from its original form to allow minors to work a maximum of 24 hours per week and six hours per day during the school year.

Democrats are, understandably, opposed to the measure. 

Sen. Troy Jackson (D-Allagash) says he is concerned that allowing teens to work longer hours will hurt their education, and lower their chances or even desire to go to college.

But the GOP are more concerned with rewarding the industry groups supporting this expansion in child labor than with risking an increase in high school dropout rates or negatively impacting student achievement. Perhaps Republicans believe that studying and high school sports are for slackers who don’t want to pull their weight in society.

The magnitude of Rep. (now Senator-elect) Dill’s win over a former Republican state legislator suggests that yesterday’s Democratic victory in SD 7 was about more than local issues. With extreme GOP policies such as rolling back child labor laws as a foil, look for more Democratic successes in Maine– and beyond-- in the months to come.