LEWISTON — Mayor Robert Macdonald figures it came down to personality.

“There are a lot of people that just don’t like Larry Gilbert,” Macdonald said Tuesday.

Macdonald kept his seat at the polls, defeating challenger and former mayor Gilbert 4,123 to 2,610.

Macdonald said he thinks voters realize he’s working for them.

“I really am trying to help, to help everybody,” Macdonald said. “We’re trying to get the landlords together and the banks to really give the working poor a decent place to live. We want to give them a Lewiston that’s just wonderful. The working poor, we are really looking to improve their housing.”

Macdonald promised to keep working to cut down on welfare fraud and boost redevelopment along Lisbon Street.

“I just want to get what I started off doing done in this term,” Macdonald said. “It’s easy for me or Larry Gilbert to be full-time mayors because we’re retired. But I want to set it up so the next mayor doesn’t have to do this full time. He can do it part time.”

Ed and Pauline LaFrance of Marston Street said they both voted for Macdonald.

“We just like him,” Pauline said. “We think he’s down to earth and he’s honest. He’s for the people and he looks out for us.”

Sandra Worthington of Barron Avenue said she wanted to give Macdonald a chance.

“It was a tough choice, but I went with the current mayor,” she said. “We’ve already had Mr. Gilbert as mayor and he did a great job while he was there, but the current mayor deserves a chance to complete what he set out to do.”

Dan Perreault said he voted for Gilbert.

“I didn’t like the way Macdonald handled things,” Perreault said. “He seems to have a big mouth sometimes.”

Lois Wagner of Mountain Avenue said she voted for Gilbert, too.

“Larry is a good man, and he has some good ideas and I think he did a good job when he was mayor,” she said. It was a vote for Gilbert, not against Macdonald, she said.

“Actually, I think Mayor Macdonald has learned a lot in the last two years,” she said. “I think he’s really grown, so this was not a vote against him. It might have been a year ago, but not now.”

staylor@sunjournal.com